The Problem with the Planet
by Thisisnataliexd
Summary: Tony Stark has always had guts. Enough said. But when he finds new people are after him- what will he do? This new organisation turn everyone against him, even the legendary Avengers. In a twisted game of hurt, deception and lies, Tony finds himself lost. After all, would save yourself, or the ones you love- even if they don't love you back?Whump!Tony. Gets better later on :)
1. Scotch and Tree Climbing

**Heyya! So this is my first ever Avengers FanFic! Go me! So anyway, this is one of those 'I can't ****sleep and it's 5am and oh wait I have an idea!' jobbies. **

**If you guys like it, then I'll continue writing it, I know the basic plot but thats all.. so I'm open for suggestions if I do carry on so you know.. Reviews welcome! **

**Probably some Pepperony (OTP guys 3) and maybe even some whump of other characters later on who knows? It's in Avengers but it's gonna be mainly Iron Man/Tony Stark based. Avengers are from the movie.**

**So yeah. Enjoy! :D**

**P.S- I own nothing :( Not Avengers, or that slight mention of the Hunger Games :( **

"Pepper.. Please?" He begged for the millionth time that evening. They were at a party. One of the most boring party's Tony had ever been to. The main reason; no alcohol. He was bewildered that a person could throw a huge party, suit and all, with not a single drop of the liquid anywhere.

"No, Tony." Pepper replied curtly, smiling as a couple came up to them beaming vibrantly.

"I'm gonna find Clint." He told her, nodding and smiling at the couple before they could strike a conversation and walked off.

He made his way to the mansions gardens, dodging people and giving brisk 'how are you?'s to people trying to talk to him. Fifteen minutes later he found himself outside, the cold night air a relief after the stuffy room he'd just left. Spotting trees, he began to walk towards them. Clint would probably be there, and it also meant he could empty his bladder without queuing for the loo if need be.

"Clint?" He called, staring into the blackness that engulfed him. These people were millionaires. Why didn't they have little lights on the trees?

A high pitched squawk sounded and he jumped backwards.

"I don't like you anymore" His surprised jumping was met with raucous laughter coming from one of the trees, and he looked up to see Clint sitting there, beside himself.

"Oh my God, your face.." Clint was wheezing while spluttering through chuckles. Tony picked up a small pebble at his feet and chucked it up in the tree at him, huffing slightly as he did so.

"Whatever Katniss. I'm coming up." He slowly started climbing the tree until he was resting on a mossy, thick branch with Clint, from here they could see through the large bay windows and into the large party/ball room, and see hoards of people chatting happily to one another.

"Look what I found" Clint grinned as he held up a bottle of Scotch, where he'd gotten it from was any bodies guess.

"Holy Capsicle- where?"

"I thought Steve told you off for saying that?"

"He'll get over himself- do you have any glasses?"

"Yep"

"Dude, you are a life saver".

The two Avengers sat in the tree, happily drinking their way through the bottle of scotch. They were on their fifth glass when they saw something that made their superhero instincts kick in at once. Lots of quick flashes traveled through the windows, and shouting could be heard.

Clint looked over at Tony and they exchanged looks.

"What in the name of Fury's.." Clint's words were cut short by the door banging open and a mass of people pouring outside. Hastily the two men clambered up the tree as fast as they could.

"It's Stark!" Someone yelled, and more bright lights flashed up into the tree. Tony winced as the many lights blinded him. Cursing under his breath, he began climbing slowly down from the tree. He looked to see if Clint was there, but he had already clambered up the tree higher and was currently sitting in the branches of a tree two metres away. Watching interestedly. Tony handled people better than Clint.

"Why were you sitting in a tree?"

"Are you mentally stable?"

"Stark is mentally unstable!"

Shouts rocketed from the crowd. Bloody paparazzi he thought to himself bitterly. "Go away- we don't wantcha here no more" his voice was coming out slightly staggered, and he realised it too because he slowly began climbing back up the tree.

After reaching his previous spot, he curled up as best he could on the branch and fell asleep. The paparazzi still clicking madly.

He woke up on the floor, grass tickling his nostrils, still wearing last nights suit. It was covered in grass stains. He didn't care. His head was throbbing painfully, as he slowly recalled the events of last night. He groaned to himself.

"Man, Pepper is pissed at you" Clint sneered, prodding him with his foot and laughing at his friends half asleep state.

"Shit.. Where's Bruce?" Tony asked, propping his head up and looking around for his Science Bro.

"Why do you wanna know where Bruce is?" Clint asked, confused.

"Need coffee." Tony replied simply. He was sure he hadn't gotten that drunk last night, but he still felt rubbish.

Clint thrust a news paper as him. "Read" he said simply, gesturing to the front page. Tony sat up properly as his eyes adjusted to the light coming through the green leaves, scanning the news paper article.

_'Starking mad!_

_At approximately 11pm last night, previous weapons manufacturer Tony Stark was perched happily in a tree during a benefit party hosted by William Creaver. _

_The genius was found sitting merrily in a tree within the Creaver mansion grounds, after storming out of the building after his girlfriend, and CEO of Stark Industries Pepper Potts. _

_Stark was found to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of his discovery- which adds even more puzzling questions to the story- where did he get the drink from at a non-alcohol party? _

_One things for certain however, Tony Stark is falling apart. No word yet on how the Avengers is taking their fellows current mentality blow.'_

Tony finished reading. "What the fuck did I just read?" He asked, shoving the paper back at Clint.

"God knows. But Peppers still mad at you." He replied with a sigh.

"Why? She knew I was going to find you, we didn't have an argument or anything." Tony was confused. Why would Pepper be so annoyed at him? This wasn't the first time he'd gotten drunk at a party.

"You rung her.. And you urgh.. Kind of dumped her. Honestly- I leave alone for 10 bloody minutes and-" Clint gulped at the look on Tony's face.

"You shit- don't fuck with me Clint" Tony was looking at Clint scowling, hoping it was all a joke.

"Check your phone" Clint suggested, trying to prove his innocence. Tony reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone, unlocking it and talking to it.

"Jarvis.. Replay conversation of me and Pepper last night" he asked uncertainly to his AI. Jarvis didn't reply but began to play the conversation through the jumped as he heard Peppers voice come through the speaker with no warning.

_"Hey Hun, I've got back to the Tower. Clint said he'd look after you while I'm here, I'll send Happy to pick you up in the morning."_

_"Don't bother"_ His voice was cold and heartless. He winced at the sound of it.

_"What?"_ Pepper asked, confused.

_"Oh like you wouldn't know. Stay out of my sight. I never want to see you again."_ More coldness.

Tony flinched, he could see Clint biting his lip. "Do you remember me saying this?" Tony asked him, uncertain. He couldn't loose Pepper over a silly drunken fight.

"Sorry dude, I don't know. I was buying pizza." Tony raised an eyebrow. "I was hungry". They carried on listening.

_"Tony- I- what?"_

_"Don't ever speak to me again. You got that? If I find you coming near Stark Towers, or my Malibu place ever again- there will be hell to pay. You got that? I don't ever want to see you again. Oh yeah, and don't try crawling to Steve, Natasha, or Bruce to talk to you either. They told me what you did."_

_"Tony I-"_ he could hear Peppers sobs through the phone now, and then it went dead.

Tony sat dumbstruck. Had he really said all that? Why would he say that? What had he done?

"You ok?" Clint asked uncertain. Tony sat there. Still trying to work it all out. Clint could practically hear his brain whirring.

"I need to find Pepper" he said, getting to his feet. And brushing the forest floor debre from off his clothes.

"Do you, urgh, what a lift?" Clint asked the billionaire slowly, as he watched the man stride across the lawn around around the mansion.

"Nope- I'm walking" and with that he began walking hurriedly down drive way, nodding to the security guard as he went and saying: "Tell Mr Creaver I say thank you for the hospitality." Sarcastically, recalling that he hadn't even received a blanket.

As he walked briskly down the street, he shoved his hands in his pockets. Expecting nothing, it was quite a surprise to find a small, folded piece of paper. Taking it out and unfolding it he quickly scanned the message:

_"Who will be there for you when you have nothing left?"_

He blinked as he continued walking down the street. This was a game to someone. He hadn't spoken to Pepper over the phone. It was someone else.

As he carried on walking, trying to piece together what the message meant- he didn't spot the black car following him slowly down the street, or the two men wearing suit tailing him as he walked.

**DUN DUN DUUUUURN- What do you think? Yes, no? Let me know! :D**


	2. Starbucks and Chloroform

**So, it turns out I'm writing these pretty quick.. fair to say slightly bored of the holidays now.. So I'm writing instead! I was actually kinda surprised about the 18 reads... That's a big number for me. Anyway. Next chapters up! Has lots of Pepper, and lots of Bruce in it too! :D **

**Let me know what you think, reviews welcome (I'm not begging or anything..) So yeah.**

**(This stories actually getting kinda dark.. I don't even know what dark corner of my brain is thinking it up. I'm tired okay? Carry on)**

**Once again- I own nothing. Not even Starbucks. Which sucks. **

He walked without hesitation into Stark Tower. It was his building after all, he's, all be it, large, house. He hadn't expected Natasha to be hugging – does Natasha do hugs?- a sobbing Pepper. He gulped.

"Stark!" He flinched as Pepper screeched at him, getting loose of Natasha's tight hugging grip and storming across the room towards him.

"Pepper- I can explain- It wasn't-" He started, but was cut short by a loud rant falling from Pepper's mouth.

"Thirteen years we've known each other! Thirteen years! You- Tony- Are an arrogant twat!" During that short burst, Tony had been trying desperately to try and calm her down, but it was no good, Pepper was running a riot.

"Natasha! Help me out here!" He pleaded with Natasha, looking over Peppers stormy glare to look at her. Natasha raised and eyebrow. _Better than that blinking poker face_ he thought to himself.

"Oh no you don't, I'm leaving. Right now. I thought we were fine together, Tony. Then I get a phone call from you- after you ditched me at that God awful party- telling me you never want to see me again?!" She was in floods by this stage, having broken down in tears. Tony felt absolutely terrible. He had caused this. Maybe he did say what was said in the phone call? Maybe it was him. Anyone could of slipped in that letter in his pocket at any point- an idle threat.

"I'm leaving. I'm sending Happy to pick up my bags and-"

"No!" Tony yelled. He didn't know what to do- it was a drunken phone call, a mistake, he didn't go through Afghanistan, Hammers drone things, or flying through a bloody portal into space where he nearly died- for her to dump him over a mistake.

"I'll leave. Have the tower. Have Malibu. Have it all. I'll go" The room froze. Why had this escalated so quickly? Surely she would understand? How many times and she seen him drunk? He was cold hard sober now though, and boy did he hate it.

"No, I will not have any of your stupid houses, you arrogant turd." She spat at him angrily. Had he done something else he had yet to know about? "Seeing as you over-rode your own AI system to try and fucking kill me."

He gaped at her. Jarvis, had tried to kill Pepper? What was going on?!

"Jarvis? Jarvis tried to kill-?" He blinked, still gawping at Pepper. "Pepper, it's not me. I promise. It's not me. Look- look, I'll prove it!" He hastened to get the small piece over paper from out of his pocket. It was gone. "It's gone! What the fuck?! It's gone!"

"I knew it!" Pepper shrieked, turning into hysterics. "You can't even get your alibi's right!" She put on a deep voice: "I'm Tony freaking Stark and I can do whatever I want- I won't stick to the cards! I won't tell people on was on the yacht! I'll tell the whole world I'd freaking Iron Man!" he blinked at her. He'd never seen her like this. Her fists were clenched.

"Fine then. If I'm that much of a nuisance. I'll leave", and with that he turned on his heal a walked briskly over the lift. Slamming the button as hard as he could.

How could Pepper think he'd do such a thing? Hadn't he proved himself? Hadn't he proved that he had changed?

**15 minutes into the future!**

"Excuse me?" Tony turned, he had stormed straight through main doors of the tower and was briskly walking up the street, until he heard a voice, obviously speaking to him, so he turned round. The voice had sounded so sweet and innocent. He had turned round expecting to see a kid wanting his autograph. So it became quite a shock to find himself having to crane his neck upwards to get a good look at the six and half foot tall man.

**Meanwhile...**

Bruce Banner was walking down the street. Nobody knew who he was. It was perfect. Everyone knew the Hulk, they just didn't know who the Hulks alternative was. Everyone was so focused on the big green guy, they never looked at the little guy behind it, and that was just the way he liked it.

He was sipping happily on his Starbucks, making his way back to Stark Towers. He had been out of the city for a week, he had travelled to Texas- why he didn't know. All he knew was that Tony had made him. Something about 'needing a holiday' and 'I bet Hulks never eaten steak'. Although he wasn't overly keen on the plan at first, he had come to enjoy it. So as he made his way down the street, he felt thought that nothing could fill his Starbucks filled bubble. He hadn't felt this contempt in a long time. Sipping his coffee again, he spotted Tony walking along the opposite side of the street, looking harassed. He was walking quickly, and the man behind him tapped him on the shoulder. Drawing closer, he began to listen in, could you eavesdrop on your best mate? He heard Tony then.

"My God you're tall aren't you?" He asked, looking the man up and down. So apparently it wasn't just the Avengers who was cheeky with.

"You're coming with me." The man said, still looking down on him, baring horrible yellow teeth and growling at Tony.

"Uh.. How about no?" Bruce felt like kicking Tony, and he could feel the Hulk bubbling inside of him. Hulk loved Tony, he wasn't going to let anything happen to him.

"You can come quietly, or Brucie over there gets it" The giant reached for his pocket and pulled out a pistol, stretching his arm across the street and pointing it straight at Bruce. This guy was good. Tony gaped at him from over the street. Bruce noticed how tired he looked, but he was more concerned about the gun pointing straight at his head from across the street. How had none of the tourists seen this already?

"Whatever, I'll come I'm having a shit day anyway" Tony sighed. It was Bruce's turn to gape now. Tony had never given up before. Why wasn't he summoning his suit? Calling Pepper? Happy? Natasha? Clint? Anyone? The giant flagged down a car and it pulled over to him, the sleek black Mercedes car door opened and Bruce watched on helplessly as Tony was pushed inside. Tony had just saved his life. Tony was in danger. What was he missing?

He gently placed his coffee on the floor- he hated littering but he couldn't find a bin- and began sprinting in the direction of Stark Tower. How the Hulk hadn't burst out already he didn't know. He ascended the street to see Pepper, Natasha and Steve hauling suitcases into the back of a taxi. What had he missed?

"Hey!" He yelled, catching his breath as he drew closer, they stopped and looked at him. "Tony- Tony- He-" He began to pant, but Pepper stopped him and began to speak instead of him.

"Tony is a bastard, who feels the need to try and kill his girlfriend's once he's through with them." She told him curtly. Bruce blinked.

"Tony tried to- I just saw him- He- He was in trouble- I-" He began again. Natasha spoke this time, her spy instincts coming into action.

"What happened?"

"He was walking down the street, looked really peeved, then this guy comes up behind him, said if he didn't go with him he was gonna shoot me, I don't even know, I was like, hidden in tourists but he was pointing the gun over the road straight at me- He just got in the car! No hesitation! Nothing! Said something like 'whatever, having a shit day anyway' or something- I don't even know." He finished, panting heavily his chest heaving. Steve and Natasha exchanged looks, while Pepper looked dumb-founded.

"He.. He was telling the truth..? Was there... Oh my God... Natasha... Was he..?" Pepper stared at a new best friend, in complete shock.

"We need to contact SHIELD" Steve said abruptly, switching to his Captain mode immediately. What was Pepper talking about? Tony had tried to kill her? That didn't make sense. He'd never do anything to try and hurt her. She is everything to him.

"We're gonna have to fill you in on the details Banner" Natasha said, as she hit the SHIELD speed dial button on her Stark Phone.

Tony grunted as he felt his heavy head lolling around. He was in a car. It had blacked out windows. How had he gotten in said car? Ah. He remembered. He kicked himself mentally. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_ he thought bitterly, he had been so busy fretting over Pepper he'd forgotten all about these people, and the letter. He tried to sit up when he realised he was lying on the back car seat. Which proved to be quite difficult with wrists and ankles bound together with zip ties. I huffed. At least he wasn't blind-folded, or gagged for that matter. He hated the inability to talk.

"Urm, hey, I kind of made a mistake.. Could you urgh, drop me off somewhere that'd be great." He said, looked at the driver, fingers crossed behind his back.

"Right O then." An idea suddenly occurred to him. "This might be a delicate topic of conversation for you but urm.. I think I'm gonna be sick." Tony pretended to heave. Getting the reaction he desired- the car stopped.

"Urgh I told you that you used too much Chloroform!" One of the men spat at the other. Tony decided his name was Bill. It was easy to remember. Although, he did learn why he had a weird tingling sensation in his nose now. The two man got out and Tony felt rough hands grab his shoulder and pull him from the car, he stood as best he could with both legs fastened. However, the balance was not needed as Bill had now slung him over his shoulder and into a fire mans lift.

_First Pepper, now this_ he thought bitterly. How much of a dumbass did you have to be to get in a strangers car? It was toddler logic. _But I'm Tony Stark and I can do whatever I want, I don't stick the cards_. He sighed remembering what Pepper had said. Did she really hate him that much? Now he was most likely going to held captive by someone who wants him dead. _Is she happy now?_ I questioned angrily. It was his own fault, and he knew it. But that still didn't explain Jarvis trying to kill her..

He felt himself being dropped, and saw a damp cloth coming closer to his mouth. _Oh fuck this_ he thought as he rolled onto his stomach, face facing to ground so that the rag couldn't reach his mouth, it was a childish attempt, he had found himself comparing himself to a kid a lot recently. The ground was cold against his face, he thought it had worked, that his plan was so fool-proof- he hadn't anticipated however Bob- the second guys name was Bob now he'd decided. To turn him over so that his mouth and nose were exposed. He slipped away from consciousness.

**Who are these mystery dudes? Who do they work for? What do they want for Tony? I'm crap at cliff-hangers! MWAHAAHAAHAHAHAHA**

**Please review :)**


	3. Nigel and Geoff

**Righto! Chapter 3.. I'm gonna say anything- partly cus my brains gone numb. Any who.. Enjoy! (Please review)**

**P.S- I didn't exactly know how to write this one, so tips and stuff for editing is much appreciated)**

**I still don't own anything, not avengers, not the Wizard of Oz, not Winnie the Pooh, nowt. Cheerio!**

Pepper clawed her way through the sea of SHIELD employees. She'd never been on the Helicarrier before. She'd heard Tony talking about the lab- bragging about how his was better. Her stomach formed a knot. Why hadn't she believed him? Now where was he?

Guilt swept through her like a plague. She knew Tony would never dump her. Maybe he'd get a tipsy and have a one night stand.. That had only happened once in the nearing 5 years they'd been going out though.

"Bruce?" She called as she stepped into the lab.

"Yeah" He called back, she walked over to where the voice came from and saw him crouching on all fours, looking through various draws.

"Do you know anything about computers?" She asked hopefully. He glanced at her.

"Do you mean, normal, everyday computers, or Stark, High-Tec computers?"

"Uh.. Stark"

He glanced at her again. "Pepper, I don't know why Jarvis tried to kill you, I didn't even know Tony could enable Jarvis to do such a thing." He glanced at her. Shock had filled her face.

"Are you trying to say Tony did try to kill me?!" She scorned, glowering over Bruce. He tried hard to suppress a gulp.

"I didn't say that-"

"Yes you did! You said Tony had ordered that attack! You're one of his best friends. Bruce, what's going on?!" She was crying again now. Bruce always thought Pepper had been so strong. She was CEO of Stark Industries for crap sake. That had to count to something.

"I don't know, you said something about he was looking for something in his pocket?" He quizzed, remembering suddenly when she had given Bruce all the details.

"Yeah.." She said, wiping her eyes and sniffing slightly.

"Can I have a look at the jacket?" He said, eyes gleaming, hoping for a clue as to where his Science Bro was. Bad idea. Pepper burst into even more tears.

"He was wearing it! When he got in the car- Oh my God- it's all my fault he got in the car" She continued sobbing. Wearily, Bruce patted her gently on the back.

* * *

"Welcome, Anthony!"

"Well Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Tony stood facing the man, the man who was so pathetic he was just dying to draw a penis on his head with a permanent marker. Justin Hammer. The turd.

"You want to watch that humour of your's Stark, it'll get you into trouble one of these days." Justin warned carelessly.

"Says the man who kidnapped one of the richest dudes in the world. And whats with Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee over there anyway?" He nodded, gesturing as much as he could toward Bob and Bill with his hands behind his back.

"Thats Nigel, thats Geoff- and I didn't kidnap you, you got in the car at free will" Justin corrected him. Tony stared blankly.

"Niell, right? He pushed me so I am hardly to blame here." Tony said. He hated Justin Hammer, and enjoyed annoying him so much. But maybe it wasn't such a good idea, as Geoff, was now pointing a gun at his head. "So what's the deal here? What do I have to do to get out of here?" There was no point beating about the bush.

"Oh, you can go Stark." Tony blinked incredulously.

"So then why the fuck am I here?" Tony asked angrily. Tugging on his wrists as he did so, they were beginning to hurt.

"Simple, disband the Avengers, let Hammer take over, everyone lives- make enemies of your best friends." Tony gawped at him.

"So you think you can just kidnap me- don't deny it you little shit- you kidnapped me- and demand I make enemies of my friends?"

"Yep" Hammer said simply. "Nigel, show him the, ah, surprise." Tony flinched as the man drew closer to him, expecting a kick in the gut, but instead, there was a small click, and a projector came on, showing- Tony gulped. Stark Industries Missiles- and their targets.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked seriously, gulping again as he stared at the targets, as they moved, drank, ate, The Avengers. Happy. Rhodey? Pepper..?

One of those was sorted already. She hated his guts. She wanted him dead. She hated him.

"Why?" He asked, looking back at Hammer.

"Want to squash the same of Stark. I want to step on you. I want to swat you-"

"So basically you want to unfriend everyone on Facebook, then kill me? So you can have all the power, and eat it all up like Thor and his Pop Tarts? What will disbanding the Avengers get you? What will it get your company? Hammer Industries is in the mud cus it's shit Hammer-" he stopped talking make Nigel elbowed him swiftly in the face. _That black eyes gonna be beautiful_ he thought to himself as he winced at the numb pain.

"So what do you say Anthony? Watch your friends die- or watch them live as you die?" Tony gulped. He was doing a lot of that recently.

"Is there any other suggestions?"

"No"

"Well then.."

* * *

"We need NYPD!"

"Why don't you just take him to Stark Tower, he was on their bloody door step."

"I think he's homeless."

"Thats a nice assumption, can we just go- please?"

"Yeah c'mon- whatever."

Tony Stark lay face down, on the front door step, or many steps, leading up to Stark Tower. His breathing was heavy, and he was wearing a thick coat, the coats length came down to his knees, and stretching up towards his his were the brightest pair of bright orange and pink stripy socks. He was out cold.

"It's Tony Stark!"

He groaned and he peeled open his eyelids. _Fucking paparazzi_ he thought bitterly. Wait, if it was the Paparazzi then where was he? Last thing he knew, Hammer, and Dumb and Dumber. He sat bolt up right, catching a glimpse of his vibrant socks. _Sexy.._ He nodded approvingly at them. He stood up and walked briskly into the tower. He flung of the coat, socks, and other clothes and threw himself into the shower. Tonight was the last night he'd be able to experience this luxury. The Avengers were no doubtably on the Helicarrier, where Pepper was he had no idea, and frankly he didn't care.

_This is for their own good. I'm helping them. Pepper too. _He thought as he clambered into bed a dozed off.

* * *

"They've found Stark" Fury barked at the table, the sea was glistening in the sunlight, and it was a relatively relaxed morning.

"What? Where?" Pepper yelled as her ears picked up the sound of Tony's name. Fury thrusted the news paper at her, where there was a picture of Tony lying face down at the foot of Stark Tower.

"Nice socks" Clint snickered, Natasha found a rival for her dreaded death glare in the form of Pepper.

"Is the Metal Man alright?" Thor asked, uncertainly.

"Widow, fly a chopper to Stark tower immediately. The surrounding people scrambled to find a suitable helicopter, and left Fury standing there. "Stark, what the fuck is going on?"

* * *

_To whoever reads this,_

_Hi, Pepper, tower and Malibu is yours. Don't like it? Sell it. No one gives a shit. Clint, you chose me over Pizza, you are a fucking ass wipe. Natasha, I'm even gonna say anything cus you scare me shitless. Thor, I've hidden your PopTarts. Deal with it. Bruce, you can Dummy's Dunce's Hat. _

_And now I'm going! Seeing as you all hate me. Whatever right? Whats to like? Pepper you said it yourself. I'm a twat. End of. _

_See you all in hell or some other place_

_Tony_

_P.S- Clint, touch the suits and you die. Tell Platypus I say TTFN_

Tony finished scrawling out his note. He meant some of it. He had a plan, and deceiving them was just the start.


	4. Red Hoodies and Buses

**Chapter 4 is here! Let me know what you think, some of the bad dudes plan comes into light a bit more here though.. **

**Please carry on with the reviews, and follows, and favourites! You guys are so awesome!**

**Also, I'm British, not American, so I may get some words wrong- sorry :( like trainers. Trainers are sneakers, sneakers and trainers. It's confusing. Anyway. Enjoy!**

**Still don't own anything :(**

He started walking along the road, wearing a casual pair of jeans and his favourite Black Sabbath T-Shirt under a plain red hoody. He kept his hood up. Hoping no one would spot him. He knew Hammer would have people tailing him.

I didn't tell any of the others about his plan, for fear of getting them involved. But they were already involved. This had happened because they're people he holds dear to him.

His mind snapped back to the benefit party, it had been raising money to aid technological advancements. That's one of the things that ticked him off from going there.

He had done his fair share of technological advantages. With his intelly-crops, the iron man suit, and God knows what else. Mr Creaver had never shown any interest in technology before. So why was he holding a party to raise money for it?

It hit him like a tonne of bricks in the face. Where had he been when the paparazzi conveniently gotten through security? Where had he been when he found that note?

He made a sharp u-turn. And what about Jarvis attacking Pepper? He hadn't spoken to the AI for ages, when he asked to replay the phone call he played it without speaking.

It was a risk- but he knew he could handle it.

"Barton" He said hurriedly, as Clint answered the phone.

"Tony- what the hells going on?" Tony froze. What should he say?

"Nothing. Is Jarvis working?" He asked hopefully.

"No, he hasn't spoken since Saturday. Since the party.. Shit Tony what's going on?" Clint breathed heavily down the phone. Tony hung up. He couldn't tell them. He'd get them killed. He called over a Taxi, and asked it to take him to Mr Creaver's mansion.

* * *

"Tony!" Pepper yelled, but it just echoed emptied off the empty tower.

"He's not here Pepper" Natasha sighed. "Jarvis, when was Tony last here?" Jarvis didn't reply. "Jarvis?" She called again. "Nothing."

"Tony just phoned me!" Clint exclaimed, bursting into the room.

"What did he say?" Asked Bruce urgently.

"He wanted to know if Jarvis was working.." They all froze and looked around them. Where was Jarvis?

* * *

He liked buses, but he hated them at the same time. They were public, he loved mixing in with the public sometimes, but hated the public too as a whole. Humans were smart, people are dumb. He made sure to keep his head low. But he knew he'd of drawn more attention if he'd worn a black hoody. A man walking round quickly, keeping his head low, wearing a black hoody? People would think he was up to something. A red hoody mind, that was more accepted. _Stupid stereo-typical people_ he thought bitterly as he made his way off the bus. The taxi driver had dropped him off a few miles down the road, when he thought Tony had said Creamer (a small home run Cheese Cake shop), and leaving him there.

As he drew closer to the front gates of the mansion, he suddenly realised how ridiculous his idea actually was. There was no way Mr Creaver would give him any information. This man was a nice man. He had hosted a no alcohol party for crap sake. That had to account to something. He needed more information first.

Suddenly, he blanched, a hot pain burning in his chest. His Arc. He'd forgotten to change it. The pain was over-whelming. He'd have to call someone. He needed Pepper to drop off a new one. Or get Happy. But he was suppose to be staying away from them. He was suppose to making them hate him. It dawned on him then, that this task of separating himself wasn't going to be as easy as he'd originally thought...

He was turning and walking in the opposite direction now, away from the mansion. What he didn't know, was that inside, two men sat in deep discussion.

* * *

Justin Hammer was sitting on a maroon arm chair, while another man sat behind his desk opposite him. The man behind the desk was old, but not so old, he looked around sixty-five, and brown hair that was more gray than anything was bushy and came down to his shoulders. He gave the impression of a mad scientist.

"Do you think he'll go through with it?" Creaver asked, sternly, eyeing Hammer.

"Absolutely- we have Stark Missiles pointing at his friends face! He would of done it if we just showed him we had Stark Technology in our hands- let alone threatening his friends! He must of worked out by now I'm controlling his AI. I helped him in a way, getting it to try and kill Miss Potts, not good for publicity, wouldn't you say?" Hammer laughed as he watched Creaver smile slightly.

Hammer felt a buzzing in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw Geoff had sent him a text:

_Stark was just at Creaver place. Went on the bus. Got to the front gate and turned around again. Back on the bus now. What do you want us to do?_

"My- ah- member of staff just informed me Stark was here, but didn't come in." Hammer said, trying to work out what it meant.

"Are you saying he knows I'm involved in this?!" Creaver spat.

"I doubt it, you've never exactly shown in distaste in the guy have you?"

"I want you out of my sight Hammer. I want to know why he was here, and I want to know why the fuck he's running round like some deluded homeless man!" Creaver roared at him, causing Hammer to flinch. The guy had some serious mood swings.

"I believe he's trying to separate himself, Sir. From the Avengers, I mean." Hammer spoke wearily.

"Why though? Hammer you're just playing with him. They're all going to die anyway."

* * *

This was a first. Well, more to the point, it was first when he was actually sober. He'd broken into his own house before. Plenty of times. But they were all when he was drunk and was trying to avoid Pepper. It never worked though because of Jarvis. Now he was breaking into a tower, a tower that he'd given Pepper, where all the Avengers were living. As he stepped off the bus, again, and made his way to the tower, he remembered the Chitauri attack, barely skimming that building as he pushed the missile upwards and through the portal, trying to bargain with Loki.

He didn't walk directly through the large entrance, he walked around the building instead, until he came to a door, a heavily locked door. But luckily, he had the key.

He stepped inside quietly, and found himself in the Stark Restaurant Kitchens. Side stepping the hasty looking Chefs, he made his was over to the elevator. It was hardly his best tactic, he'd have to get out the lift anyway and into the visitor section, where there was thousands of CCTV cameras, then he'd have to manage to get through to the actually residential part of the tower and through the lifts their. Why had he made it so difficult to break into his tower?

He was in the visitors section now, looking around, pretending to be interested in the various museum like artefacts on the wall. Pepper had said it would be good for the public, as well as publicity. _I wonder if she's here?_ His chest gave a sudden jolt and he lurched forward, nearly smashing his head off the glass case. Chest still prickling, he made his way over to the lift and pressed his finger onto the pad. It was so much easier than having two security guards. He laughed as he imagined himself with Bob and Whats-his-face all the time like Hammer. The guy really was a nut.

As he drew up to his own resident level, he cursed at his low tact. Pepper could be in there. If Hammer really did have cronies after him as he suspected, they would surely know he was here. They would know that he would have to speak to them.

Squeezing his eyes shut, the elevator doors opened. He opened them again to find five of the Avengers, and Pepper, staring, bewildered at him. He gulped. He didn't know what made him do it. He got on the floor and started crawling across the room, towards the lift that would take him to his lab. He flinched as a bullet smacked off the floor less than ten inches away from his face. He turned around and crawled in the other direction. Another gun shot. Standing up, he stared at them all, Thor was looking confused, Bruce was looking concerned, Clint was trying to hold back a cheeky remark, but dissolved into his serious face, Natasha was supporting her poker face, and Pepper looked like she was going to cry. Tony hesitated for five seconds, then pelted towards the lift. No sooner had he gotten there however, he felt hands grab the back of his hoody causing him to stop and fall over backwards.

"Stark, you tell us what the fuck your playing at right now, don't think I won't put this bullet through your head because you know I will" Natasha snarled at him. He shouldn't of run, his Arc was aching.

"Got, uh, kicked, outta, outta.." He thought for a while as he tried to catch his breath, it hurt with each gasp of new air "Yoga." He finished, hopefully.

"You got kicked, out of yoga." Natasha said. It was a statement, not a question.

"Yep, and I uh, kinda need a new Arc so if you don't mind.." He tried to get up but was pushed back down again.

"Natasha, he needs a new Arc, let him go and get one. He'll be dead before he can answer your questions." That was Bruce. Tony felt a rush of relief as Natasha let go of him. He didn't stand up this time. He crawled to the lift again.

"Don't you think it would be wise for one of us to escort him?" Thor contemplated in his booming voice. They watched the lift disappear into the floor towards the lab.

"I'll go." Pepper said, as she walked over to the lift.

"My brother was always throwing tantrums like this." Thor carried on, voice still booming.

"Are you saying Loki's back?" Steve asked uncertainly. He'd never seen Stark act like this before. They didn't get along overly well but needless to say, he was worried about the inventor.

"Nay, Friend Steve, Loki is secured on Asgard. I am saying I know how to handle this kind of behaviour."

"No, I'll go." Pepper assured them "I'm his girlfriend."

"You might want to double check that Pepper." Clint said as he received a swift kick from Natasha and a glare from Pepper, as she walked over to the lift. This, was going to be a long day.

* * *

"He's at the Stark place, Boss!" Nigel told Hammer through the phone.

"What the fucks he doing there?!" Hammer roared down the line, causing Nigel to flinch at the other end.

"Don't know, sir- what do you want us to do?" Nigel asked, wondering what his Boss would say.

"Urgh, I don't know. I'll phone you back." He ended the call. A plan formulating quickly in his head. He began to phone Nigel back... I smile curling unpleasantly upon his lips...

**Me thinks some Tony whump be coming up next? Possibly?**


	5. White Rooms and Black Cars

**So uh.. Chapter 5! I'm writing these faster than I thought I would- however- I'm going on holiday tomorrow and I don't think there'll be any wifi :( so I won't be able to post any more for at least a week- I'll promise I'll try though!**

**Anyway, bit of Tony whump in this one :) I did say it'll come! This chapters also kinda sweary, so I apologise in advance if I offend anyone :/ **

**Hope you enjoy! Again, please review :) You guys are awesome, btw. **

**Anywho, enjoy!**

"Tony..." Pepper walked into the lab, catching sight of her tousle haired boyfriend. Tony stuck up his hand, telling her not to talk to him. "Tony... I..." He shook his head. He couldn't talk to her, he knew he was putting their lives at risk from just being there. Forget telling them what was going on, and how badly everything was messed up. "I.. I didn't mean what I said.. The other day.." She carried on, trying to not let the tears fall again.

"Don't talk to me." He warned her, still not looking at her while he fumbled with his new Arc. Pepper looked hurt.

"Tony.. What's going on?" She asked again, more curiously this time.

"Don't fucking talk to me Pepper." He said again. He hadn't meant to swear at her, contrary to believe, Tony hated swearing at Pepper. It was killing him. But he had to act like he didn't want to make amends, he knew she was telling the truth. But if Hammer knew, they'd all be gone. Not just Pepper.

"Tony, why? What's going on?" She was crying now, unable to hold back the tears any more. He'd only seen her cry once before, when he'd returned from Afghanistan after the three months. He wanted to hug her. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright. But of course he knew it wouldn't be.

"You don't get it? Please Pepper, don't talk to me." He replied, still messing around with his new Arc, before he took out the old one and replaced it, he had to sound stern, and cold, trying to put on Natasha's legendary poker face.

"Why?" She asked again, more persistent, tears slowly disappearing, as rage started to flood her cheeks.

"For God sake Pepper! If they knew I was here- which they probably do- I'm dead- You're dead- The Avengers are dead! Me talking to you is going to put you in even more danger! Pepper- Don't- Fucking- Talk- To- Me." He finished. Breathing heavily. That was way more information than he'd originally intended to give. "I'm leaving." He got up and walked past her. She was frozen in her spot, shaking.

"Tony, don't do anything stupid" She whispered as he walked past. Tony frowned. He was going to find Hammer. He was going to tear him down. He wouldn't let himself be bullied by that pompous toe rag. He wouldn't let him hurt Pepper.

He was just coming up to the Avenger floor, and the doors of the lift opened, when he stopped. He'd forgotten they were still here. They were huddled together, talking quickly to one another. Clint trying to cut across Steve. He quietly tiptoed around them, but Natasha and Clint heard him. He saw them all turn towards him and he gulped. What would they do? Would they attack him? Would they just leave him alone? His questions were answered as Natasha started to draw out her gun. Again.

He sprinted toward the other lift and jumped inside it. Quickly pressing the button as the door closed. _How many times was she going to try and shoot him today?_ He thought angrily. Maybe it was a good idea he was distancing himself after all.

* * *

"Natasha! What the fuck was that for?" Clint exclaimed wildly as Natasha pelted towards the lift.

"Stark isn't thinking straight, he's gonna get himself killed." She replied, waiting for the lift to come back up.

"Not if you fucking shoot him first! Think, Tasha." Natasha stopped.

"He doesn't know what he's doing. I'm going to get him back, and try to knock some sense into him, before he can try any more crazy stunts." She told him briskly.

"Think about it though Natasha, what would send Tony so far over the edge? He must have a reason to how he's acting." Bruce sighed at them.

"What should we do then?" Natasha asked, tapping her foot as she waited for the lift to arrive.

"Go after him- but no guns." Steve said sternly.

* * *

Tony pelted out of the elevator. Security started chasing him now. He'd forgotten he'd dressed unlike his usual self. Now he looked like some random guy had been in Stark Tower, and into Tony Stark's house. He turned so that they could see who he was. They stopped- they weren't going to chase their boss.

As he got out onto the street he continued running. Turning round every now again- on the fifth time he saw what appeared to be Natasha, Steve and Clint running after him. He cursed, bending his head low to try and enable him to run quicker. That's when he collided with someone, stumbling backwards, he looked up, and into the face of Nigel.

"You- What the fuck?!" Tony yelled at the man.

"He told you what should and shouldn't be done Mr Stark." Nigel growled, as another black Mercedes pulled up next to him. He grabbed his shoulder.

"What- Fuck- No! Don't you dare do fucking anything! You touch them and you die!" He shouted at him, arms flailing wildly as he tried to get the man to let go of him, so he could escape. He'd been getting a new Arc- that was all- he didn't mean to talk to any of them.

"Mr Stark, it's _your_ life you have to be worried about." He snarled as the car door opened, pushing Tony inside. He tried frantically to get back out the car, but he was breathless from the running. "Night night Mr Stark." Nigel said as Tony's head collided with the but of a gun.

* * *

"There he is!" Natasha yelled at the two men as the turned the corner and saw Tony, standing with a very tall man, yelling at him.

"...You- What the fuck?!" They heard him yell at the man. Natasha and Clint exchanged looks. Who was this man? Tony obviously knew him. They carried on running towards them, a car had pulled up. They were fifty metres away now.

"Touch them and you die!" They heard him shout as the man said something quietly to him. They watched as shock, then terror dawn on Tony's face- before he was pushed into the car.

They started sprinting again, but not in time for the car to pull away.

"Holy Capsi- Sorry Cap- What the hell was all that about?!" Clint gasped, clutching at his breath. Steve looked horrified.

"Do you think it's those guys from before?" He asked seriously, looking at the two assassins.

"Which time?" Natasha laughed, before switching back to her poker face. "Tony knew this guy, otherwise he wouldn't of yelled 'You', would he?" She started "We need to ask Bruce what the guy looked like before." They began running back towards Stark tower, and as it came into view, they stopped dead.

A large boom sounded, and the top floor or Stark Tower was billowing smoke into the hazy New York sky. Exchanging glances, they ran towards the tower.

* * *

"I warned him."

"But Stark Tower! Way to keep a low profile!"

Mr Creaver was standing, yelling at Hammer, as he switched off the TV in his office.

"Hammer, you better sort yourself out, I can't tolerate much more of your bullshit." A phone rang and Hammer answered, talking for less than a minute, he hung up, grinning madly. "What?" Creaver asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"They have Stark." He continued beaming.

* * *

If there was one thing Tony Stark hated, it was mornings. Well, not mornings exactly, more, what they brought with it. Headaches. Usually. He groaned as he peeled an eye open. White. He snapped it shut again. He hated that colour. Not the colour specifically, more what was associated with that colour. Hospitals.

Readying himself for the dazzling brightness this time, he opened his eyes again. He was in a square room. More to the point, he was on the floor, in the square room. He eyed his surroundings. The walls were white tiles, with horrible looking brown patches thrown around it. He didn't want to think what it was. The ceiling was white, again, with a small light hanging from it. The floor was cold, dark, concrete grey. Opposite him however, the tiles gave way to a large, blacked out window. _Interrogation then? _He thought as he tried to put two and two together. He tried to sit up, but his head felt dizzy so he carried on lying there.

A door opened. How had he not spotted that? Nigel and Geoff came in, followed by an overly happy looking Justin Hammer.

"Tony!" He exclaimed, grinning broadly as he came level with him. "Do you know what you did to your friends Tony?" He asked as though he was talking a six year old who he was trying to get the truth out of.

"What did you do?" Tony growled, sitting up straight now, he hadn't noticed till then his hands were tied. Again.

"No, Anthony, what did _you _do? You're the one who went in there after all."

"I needed a new Arc, besides, its not like I got a warm welcome- they tried to shoot me!" Tony grimaced, remembering Natasha's bullet narrowly missing his head.

"Yet you still spoke to them- what goes through your head Anthony?" Hammer shook his head, disbelievingly. Justin stepped back and clicked his fingers, another man walked into the room, pushing a portable stand with a TV on it. Justin looked at the floor, still shaking his head and smiling. "This is what you did, Tony." Geoff pressed to 'on' button on the remote and the news sprang up immediately. Showing a picture of smoke, bellowing from Stark Tower.

"_At 3:05 this evening, the residents of Stark Tower were met with a shock when the building caught fire, however four out of the six avengers were out of the building at the time, while Thor, the Asgardian Prince, and Bruce Banner, otherwise known as 'The Hulk' and Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries were inside. _

_Rumours believe that this wasn't a natural fire, as sources report Tony Stark himself fled from the building, minutes before the fire started. Could he have started the fire in a drunken rage? Or was Miss Potts to blame, as revenge after their recent fall out?"_

Tony gaped at the screen. No one was hurt. Good.

"It could have been a lot worse, Anthony, a lot worse." Hammer chuckled as he switched the TV off, Tony still sat there- dumb-stuck. "You know, if it hadn't been for that bloody AI of yours, it would have been a lot worse, you should thank him."

"Jarvis? I thought Jarvis wasn't working?" Tony said, registering what Hammer had just said.

"He was trying to work, but our technical team here at Hammer Industries were able to write a sufficient virus to over-ride him. We're not as dumb as you think."

"Your _technical team _aren't as dumb as I think, you're still an idiot." Tony corrected him. He felt Geoff's boot collide with his side and he winced at the pain now circulating his ribs. _Yay! More bruises! _He thought to himself bitterly.

"It's obvious you're not taking this seriously, do you want to know why you are here Stark?" Tony nodded- couldn't hurt could it? "Behind that glass is, ah, someone you don't want to mess around Stark, go on, wave- oh wait no you can't because your hands are tied! That's right! Tony glowered at him. This man really was pathetic, and childish, maybe Thor was right about Humans being petty. "I'm going to rule one day you know, not just the business industry either."

"That's a pretty ambitious goal, you should rethink it, I doubt it's ever gonna happen." Tony told him, suppressing the smirk.

"You're funny Tony, you're a funny guy" Hammer laughed again, but obviously not feeling any humour in it at all. "I'm going to make your life hell, Anthony, just like you did to mine." Tony mentally started a staring contest, and apparently Hammer was playing along too, because they continued glaring at each other for ten seconds, before Tony replied:

"How about no?" it was Nigel's turn to swing a kick that time, and it collided with his other side, winding him slightly. "Yay! I'm symmetrical now!" He tried to laugh, but wheezed instead. Justin touched his ear, and Tony realised he had and ear piece.

"Turn on the TV" He brandished his arm at the TV, and Nigel turned it on.

"_Tony Stark has been reported missing after the events that took place in Stark Tower earlier today. It is known that The Avengers, along with the Missing Persons division of NYPD are currently searching for the billionaire, however, rumours say he has ran-away himself, after a fight with Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, seconds before the blaze. _

_However, no members of the superhero team were willing to give a statement, while intel at Stark Industries say members of the search party are working tirelessly to find him. _

_The question on everyones lips is this though- what is going on with Tony Stark? Could his obsession with alcohol be sending him down the wrong way after he'd worked so hard to rebuild his reputation, or is working with The Avengers proving too much for him?"_

"Again with the alcohol crap! I'm sober now aren't I?" He hated the media. He hated it. Almost as much as he hated Justin Hammer, now he came to think of it. "I wonder what would happen if they were to receive this?" Hammer fiddled with his phone, and turned to look at the TV.

"_Wait, George, a picture has been sent in.. Holy.." _

The screen changed to show a picture of Tony, hands behind his back, with multiple bruises on his face, and a large swollen gash down his leg, he was also unconscious, slumped on a muddy floor.

"What the fuck? My legs fine! When did that happen?" Tony questioned wildly- his leg was fine as far as he could tell.

"Photoshop, Stark." Hammer provided simply, turning to face him again.

"At least now they won't think I'm some raging alcoholic." Tony said, trying to lift his own spirits. Imagine if Pepper saw that? What should she do? He grimaced at the thought.

"The problem now though, Anthony, is the fact that if anyone should come looking for you, and on the off chance they find you, they won't take my demands seriously when they see you fit and healthy.. so... naturally.. we're gonna have to change that. Nigel, Geoff, if you would?" Hammer looked at Tony just to see the colour leave his face. "See you around Tony." He waved as he walked out the room, the man pushing the trolley following him.

Tony gulped as he saw Nigel and Geoff walking slowly towards him, grinning.

"So uh.. don't suppose we could settle this over a drink?" He gulped as they drew closer.

"No" Nigel replied menacingly.

"Right-O" Tony said as he looked around madly, trying to find something that might help him. But he saw nothing, turning back around, his face collided with a fist, and he felt his jaw crunch.

He closed his eyes. These were going to be a long few days.


	6. Quotations and Fire

**Righto, I've found some where with Internet! **

**I don't know what to make of this chapter, whether I love it or hate it. Either way, please review! Really really really! **

**Also, whoever tells me all the film quotes correctly will get a virtual high five!**

**i still don't own anything :(**

**also, do you want the Avengers to help? Or him to work alone? It's up to you! Please review, OMG all you people who are just reading it alone are making my life, so thanks! **

You know that was kind of pointless? And a waste of time, right?" Tony seethed as he felt the gentle thud of his heart beating in his ears.  
He had a long, nasty gash in his leg now, and could feel his left cheek swelling brilliantly. If the image he was being made to look like had indeed been replicated, he knew he'd look like shit.  
Nigel sneered at him. Geoff held up a mirror so that Tony could see their handy work. His latest theory had been right.  
"Well, the replica is very convincing, only a Goblin would be able to recognise that this is the true sword of Gryffindor." He smiled to himself, because Bruce would be so proud if he knew he'd just quoted Harry Potter like that.  
"What's he on about?" Nigel questioned, staring at Tony. Tony just grinned at him.  
"Dunno, do you think we gave him a concussion?" Tony smiled even wider. He knew it wasn't in the cards for them to give him a concussion, he knew Hammer wanted him with full mental capability- for what he didn't know. But never-the-less, the sight of Geoff and Nigel worrying over whether or not they had indeed caused some sort of mental injury, gave him an idea.

Natasha stopped as she saw Thor, Bruce, and Pepper being ushered out of the building by several firemen. Thor begrudgingly however, booming loudly that he was fine and that he "needed to see if Lady Pepper was okay." Natasha quickly realised that he wasn't talking about the fire however.  
Each of the three looked unscathed, but Pepper was in complete shock- Natasha couldn't tell whether it was because of the sudden fire, or because of Tony. She didn't know yet about him being taken, again. She knew Pepper would kick herself when she realised that Tony was being blackmailed, at he wasn't acting of his own accord.  
Clint slipped his hand into Natasha's, it was a blessed warmth between her fingers, as they were ushered over to Pepper by Steve.  
"Pepper! Are you okay?" Steve said hurriedly, as Pepper was the closest out of three who had been in building. Bruce was being checked over by paramedics, much to his distaste it seemed, and Thor was having a rushed argument with a Police Man he seemed to of annoyed.  
"Yeah, fine.. But Tony.." She started, apparently to shocked for tears any more.  
"I know Hun, I know." Then Natasha did one of things she'd rarely done in her life, and gave Pepper a tight hug, Pepper, after all, was one of her best friends. After Clint and Coulson, Pepper was her only friend out side the world of espionage, and she thanked her starry socks for it.  
"He said.. He said he couldn't talk to me.. That he was risking it.. What did he mean?" She blinked up at Natasha, hoping for an answer.  
"I think.. Tony was being blackmailed. Pepper, I need you to calm down." Natasha said, trying to calm down her friend before she told her what she, Clint, and Steve had just witnessed. Clint was chewing his lip and gave Natasha a questioning look. She replied telepathically to go, that she could handle it. Clint understood and ran off to save Thor from the swarm of Police Men gathering on him.  
"Natasha.. What's going on?" Pepper asked, looking into Natasha's eyes, as though hoping the answer would be written into her retina.  
"We caught up with Tony, but he's, he's gone again. Pep, we're going to find him okay? We saw the man, we saw the car. We're going to get him back." She pulled Pepper into another hug now, as Pepper sobbed into her arm. She'd never seen Pepper so sad, so low. Tony really did mean the world to this woman. And she really meant the world to him.  
Just then, a swarm of camera men in their vans started to pull up, blocking the road.  
"C'mon, we need to get you out of here. Before you get any unwanted publicity."  
"My bloody tower is on fire Natasha! My boyfriends missing! I don't think it can get any worse."  
Natasha hugged her tighter when she saw reporters clamber out of vans and cars.  
"Excuse me?" A woman with short, curly blonde hair came up to them, holding a phone in her hand. Natasha glared at her. Reporters and journalists were so insensitive sometimes. "I think you should see this.." The woman held out the phone for Natasha and Pepper to see the picture on the screen. Tony.

He looked at the pair of thugs, and decided that they hadn't been giving him enough attention. It was obvious that these two dopes didn't know good films, so that's where he started.  
"Hey, you got any aspirins?" He said, looking up at the two men again, and seeing their attention draw back to him. "I have had a bad fucking headache all day."  
He half expected one of the two to have some if he thought about it, and given his current situation he figured an aspirin wouldn't be so bad.  
"Uh, no." Nigel replied, and went back to talking in hurried whispers to Geoff. Tony frowned. His leg and face were killing him, but his brain continued whirring as he thought up as many film quotes as possible.  
"I had a nasty turn in a booth once." He smiled at this one, it gave no reference to the situation what so ever, providing the cover that he was in his own little world, in order to help this new tact, he gave himself a glazed expression, as Geoff turned to him.  
"What's he wittering on about?" He said unsurely. Tony didn't know what had happened to himself within the last few days. But he knew that whatever had been causing him to act like a dead person, it was wearing off, and soon he'd be his right as rain bastard self again. He just hoped he didn't piss off his captors too much before hand.  
"I think we should call Hammer. He's gonna be so pissed. We've sent him loopy." Tony realised that this was Geoff's and Nigel's first time at working with a captive, that made him grin wider, and their faces shrink further into worry.  
"Hammer, we've got a situation down here." Geoff spoke into his walkie-talkie. Tony blinked. A walkie-talkie? People still used those?  
He heard a voice crackle at the other end.  
"What is it? If he's singing bloody jingle bells again, I'm going to kill you two for wasting my-" Tony continued beaming as he remembered that. He just had it going round his head, and he remembered joyfully the time when Thor had knocked out several armed men with his hammer, while happily singing a low, Asgardian war song that Tony had never heard before. It was quite a liberating experience.  
"No, Sir, we may of accidentally hit him on the head." Tony suppressed a laugh as he heard Hammer roar at the other end.  
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened." Tony prided himself on being able to quote such a long section, but he'd had many movie marathons, so knew most films off by heart.  
"Who was that?" Hammer startled at the other end.  
"That was Stark, Sir, he's talking nonsense, completely barmy." Tony was in complete awe that these people were actually believing him. He was great at lying, but whenever he was in a situation like this, they always saw right through him. But then he realised that these weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and he promised himself that when these two were happily locked away in jail, he'd bring them plenty of his all time favourite films, and subject them to watching them. If that included High School Musical, then so be it.  
"I'm coming in." He heard Hammer sigh. Tony opted for a happily stupid expression, going off the one Clint wore when Natasha had kissed him at breakfast one time.  
Nigel and Geoff both looked even more concerned. Tony thought about it then. Why would they be so worried about someone they were probably going to try and kill later on? It didn't make sense.  
A door opened at the end of the room and Hammer came in. Tony looked up at him and began joyfully singing 'its hammer time' and the top of his lungs, as far as they would let him go at any rate, they still ached from the several kicks he'd received to his ribs.  
"What is this?" Hammer asked. Disbelief raining down on him. Tony was having the time of his life. Piss off, taunt, and confuse Justin Hammer in one go? It was a dream.  
A second later, the door opened again and a new man stepped in. Tony surveyed him cautiously. He recognised this man, everything from the dimple on his chin, to the mole over his left eyebrow. He knew him.  
Mr Creaver.

"Pepper, Pepper, Pepper! Look at me Pepper!" Natasha snapped her fingers in front of Peppers face, which was contort in rage, and horror. Natasha had promptly grabbed the woman's phone and threw it across the street, making many people duck as it nearly hit their heads.  
"Please Pepper, it can't be that bad, it shouldn't be that bad.." She thought to herself as she tried to calm down the business woman. "Thor, can you look after Pepper for me?" They were ushered into a quinjet by various SHIELD agents, and after persuading the pilot to let her and Clint fly, they were sitting in the cock pit.  
"It's weird don't you think?" Clint said, as he fumbled around with some buttons.  
"What is?" Natasha replied curiously.  
"When we got to the Tower, Stark had been in the car, what, 15 minutes? Max. Not five minutes later, we got that text. Either they get places and beat people up really quick, which I might add, those bruises wouldn't have come up that quick.."  
"Are you saying that wasn't Tony?" Natasha asked. It was possible, she supposed.  
"I'm saying I'm going to get Bruce and some of the people down in the more technological advanced department to look more into that picture." Clint said firmly. Natasha beamed at him. She really did love that man sometimes.  
"Director Fury, have you seen this picture?" Agent Hill asked, storming up to the Helicarriers main deck. It was full of Agents running round like headless chickens. She held out a picture of Tony all bloody and bruised so that Fury could see it. He winced, and there were not a lot of things Nick Fury winced at.  
"When was this taken?" He questioned the Agent, furrowing his blow, and causing a crease of skin over his eye patch.  
"Five minutes ago, roughly." She replied, surveying the picture for herself again.  
"I want that picture analysed. I want to know what time zone, what State, what type of goddamn straw he's lying on, and I want it five minutes ago!" He barked at the surrounding Agents as they fumbled to analyse the picture.  
He knew that Black Widow and Hawkeye would arrive soon- and he hoped they'd shed some light on the subject.


	7. Camping and Puppeteers

**New chapter! I literally wrote this enormous one, this is like a third of it so I decided to break it down.**

**Thank-you again for all your reviews, reads, favourites, and follows- you are all seriously amazing. Really. Like awesomer than Mark 42. **

**We hit 1,000 reads on Wednesday evening too! Which just absolutely made my life. So, I've been sitting here, writing this wearing my new Iron Man Arc Reactor glow-in-the-dark t-shirt and fangirling while doing so.**

**Anyway, I'm rambling now. I might post the next part of this chapter later this evening or tomorrow morning, it depends on time I guess. **

**In the mean time, enjoy, review, subscribe, and whatever else you want to do! I'm just happy people are reading it! :D And because Seoneta asked for it, there's more Tony hurt coming up :) **

**Enjoy!**

**Also, answers to the quotes are in this chapter- I don't own the quotes, I don't own the films mentioned, I don't own anything :( **

**Thanks!**

* * *

"Mr Stark is just turning back to his usual self, aren't you? You little bastard."

"You wound me Mr Creaver, you really do." Tony retorted as he gave a mock hurt expression, but he made sure to emphasise on the fact that he knew the mans name.

The man stood, hands in front of him as he smiled a horrible, wicked smile down at Tony. It was all he could do to stop himself from gulping. This guy knew his play.

"So we had Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2, I might add" he started talking, counting off the quotes on his fingers. "Die Hard 3, James Bond- Live and Let Die- Roger Moore was a good James Bond, but Sean Connery was better, and Star Wars also! Well Mr Stark, you have a fine taste in films!" Mr Creaver clapped and chuckled. "I have seen many a head wound that makes a person jabber on about nonsense, Mr Stark, but never one where they start to quote Obie Wan Canobe." Mr Creaver said, still a light note in his voice, as though he were at a dinner party, like the one he'd hosted the other day.

"Barton got the booze off you didn't he?" Tony asked him, realising it suddenly. Avoiding Nigel and Geoff's shocked faces at that he wasn't off his rocker at all.

"Naturally. I didn't specifically hand him the bottle, but I just gave him the right nudge towards it."

"Why?"

"Because Mr Stark, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of getting out of that wretchedly boring party." He supplied simply, causing Tony to furrow his brows further. Damn, this guy knew him too well. "Enough so as to put a damper on your spirits, and simply drug you while you were asleep, causing you not to think straight, more of a depressant if you will, and use your phone to get your AI to phone Miss Potts."

"So, in short, you've been keeping low on the brute force part, and tried to get to me mentally?" Tony asked, choosing his words carefully, trying to work it out.

"Yup." The man nodded. Expression void of any emotion. "Until I recruited this guy," he stuck a thumb out and pointed it at Hammer "and he decided to play the 'brute force' part, and subject you to a beating. Not that you don't deserve it of course." He smiled at Tony.

What was the point of it all? Why was he even here? This man was obviously a lunatic, and so was Hammer. What had he done to piss off this man so badly?

"If you could urgh, shed a little light on why I'm actually here, that'd be great." Tony supplied, hinting that he, even with his genius, wasn't seeing the full picture.

"My company never did too well, Mr Stark, we tried so hard. Medication improvements, better living standards- we were going to change the world. But your company was so high on itself that a modest corporation like ours wouldn't stand a chance. Then you went missing in Afghanistan and things finally started to look up for us. I can't say I wasn't happy with your disappearance, Mr Stark. But you came back, your company was in a mess, no one knew what you were doing, heck, you didn't know what you were doing. Our chances were rising." Mr Creaver paused, taking in Tony's bewildered face. This was just a company story, nothing a couple of share holders couldn't of changed. Why was he being persecuted for his company? Again?

"I still don't see where your coming from. I'm not my company." He spat the last sentence, a line he'd said before. Why had his Dad set up that bloody company in the first place? It had doing nothing but ruin him.

"The point is Mr Stark, we need you out of the picture."

"Why didn't you just hire at hit man then to get it over with?" Tony could feel the hatred burning up inside him, this man was a waste of time.

"Hammer over here, likes to play with his food before he eats it."

"Well I hope you get bloody food poisoning." Tony quipped at the man. All of this was just a game? To play with him? To taunt him? They didn't want his genius, they didn't want his brains, they just wanted him dead. Simple as.

Tony lurched forward, where the adrenaline was coming from he had no idea, his leg was yelling at him to fuck off, but Tony wasn't listening, trying with all his might to stand up with both legs tied. It was like a three legged race with himself.

"Now now Mr Stark, violence never solved anything."

"Yeah it does, someone pissing you off and you kill them, they won't piss you off anymore, which I won't hasten to remind you, was just your tactic." Tony spat at the man before him.

Hammer had been quiet throughout the whole scene, basking in the glory of seeing the man who'd made his life hell being taunted like this. But a beep from his phone brought him back to Earth. Flicking the phone open, he read the message.

"Shield want to know what the current hostage situation is, Sir." He said calmly, flipping the phone shut again as he looked between Creaver and Tony. Tony of whom was snarling not unlike a dog at Creaver.

"Well, Mr Stark, you could do that.. Or you could find someone else who wants to deal with you." Replying to his question, ignoring Hammer but taking in his words.

Tony continued snarling, as he felt his head going light. He quickly realised that the four men before him had all put on gas masks, not unlike the ones from World War 2, and a misty fog began to incase his vision.

* * *

Fury was tapping madly on the desk, a Black Sabbath tune that Tony had over ridden the Helicarriers speakers to play subjecting everyone to listening to it. He smiled as he remembered Tony's last act of cheekiness before things started to go wrong for him. It was hard to believe that was only three days ago. Fury grimaced as he remembered yelling at Tony, telling him he was a waste of intelligence, and that he should be more concerned about dissecting the alien like creature he and the rest of the Avengers had taken down not a day before. All through his rant Tony had just grinned at him, obviously not taking his words seriously.

Fury then went that extra step and compared him to his Dad. Saying how Howard was a greater man than he was; he was a waste of Stark brains, a waste of time.

Tony just shook it off, took it in his stride, but deep down Fury knew that Tony had been hurt. He hated being compared with his Dad, he hated the liability to the world his company had become.

Fury sighed. A part of him wished he'd never said it, but another part stood resolute that that's what he needed to hear, but it wasn't like he hadn't heard it before.

"Sir." Fury turned round to see Bruce standing behind him, fiddling madly with his fingers.

"What is it Banner?" Fury asked, hoping to hear some good news.

"We, ah, just got this through. It's been played on all the major TV networks.. It's about Tony.." Banner said slowly, as he held out a tablet for Fury to see.

He peered at the screen, a puppet was on the screen, not unlike Punch from Punch and Judy. It was speaking, but obviously with the help of a hand and a voice with added effects. It's shiny red nose was glinting with the light of an unknown LED, and it's fake eyebrows were grey with flecks of black. It's tall hat was red and white stripes, Fury thought the doll was creepy.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!" It was speaking with a high pitched voice as its false mouth opened and closed. "We bring to you today an exciting event!" That drew Fury's attention more than anything, if you happened to glance at the screen before you'd of thought you'd switched it over to a children's TV show by accident. "So roll up roll up! Betting is now open! For you to get your hands on this!" The screen froze momentarily, and redirected itself at a hunching figure obviously unconscious. A bruised and battered face, with a nasty yellow bruise covered the right side above his cheek. Ripped clothes enabled you to see the cut on his leg, which was turning a nasty shade of purple.

Fury's mouth twitched as he recognised it as Tony. A boot started to lightly kick the unconscious Tony and he groaned, eyes flickering open for a moment- Fury noticed how they were bloodshot.

* * *

_**Meanwhile**_

* * *

Tony groaned as he felt something tapping him. He opened his eyes to see a camera pointing at his face, one of the ones his company had made for TV companies.

He shut them again. A high pitched voice rung around his brain.

"Now Mr Stark, you don't want to be rude to our viewers. Give the camera a wave! Go on!" Tony moaned and tilted his head back. Whatever was in that gas, it was doing his head any favours. He lifted his arm up and tilted his hand to the side a bit.

He heard the voice again. "Now, everyone! Call this number to start bidding! Lines close by 11:58pm tomorrow night!"

Tony was trying to work out what was going on. Some sort of betting game, by the sounds of it. Was he in a Casino or something?

He felt arms grab him under his arm pits and haul him up. He hadn't realised he'd been slumped against a tree. There were pine cones littering the ground and he felt them crunch as the two men (undoubtably Nigel and Geoff) half walked, half carried him towards a van with a satellite perched on top, where the doors swung open and he was pushed inside. A few moments later he felt the van begin to rumble, realising they were leaving the forest.

"Photogenic as always I see Mr Stark!" Creaver bent down and smiled at him, although it was evident there was no supporting happiness in that smile. Tony grimaced.

The van continued to roll along the road for a good forty minutes (Tony estimated) before it came to a halt again. He felt himself being kicked out of the van and he slumped onto the ground. It was raining. Lovely. He was tired. All he wanted to do was sleep. But apparently people had different intentions, grabbing him up again and sitting him against a tree. He didn't really pay attention as several thick ropes were wrapped around him and the tree, tying him securely to it. He felt as the cable ties on his hands were cut off and replaced with thick rope, making him hug the tree backwards. He also felt as his legs were bound together with more rope. No chance of escaping then.

He looked up and saw stars. Real stars. Not clouded by the New York polluted sky; but real stars, that shone brightly down on him. And with that, he fell into an uneasy sleep.

When he awoke again, it was to find several tents had sprung up around him. His arms ached from their awkward positioning, and he attempted a wriggle but couldn't budge. He looked down and was relieved to see the comforting blue glow of the arc reactor peaking through a small gap in the binds.

"Hey." He called over to Hammer, who was sitting at a camping table, heartily tucking into a bacon sandwich. It smelt amazing. Tony hasn't realised how hungry he was until then.

"Don't you think this is all a bit.. Damsel in distress?" He looked down, shuffling a bit, trying to gesture at himself.

"Yeah, buh no ones gohna rescue yuh" Hammer replied thickly through a mouth full a bacon. Tony winced as a few flecks of chewed up bread threw themselves across the clearing from out of Hammers mouth.

Tony knew, hoped, he was wrong. The Avengers would be there any minute and get him out of there. He just knew it. Then they'd be back in the tower, and he'd apologise to Pepper, and they'd be munching their way through Thor's Poptarts in no time.

"Have you forgotten the fact that I'm in a super secret boy band plus one girl?" He asked smiling to himself. Remembering telling Fury he didn't want to be apart of it himself. He remembered Fury then, and how he'd said that he was a waste of time.

_"You're good for nothing you know that? You were never meant for the Avengers- hell, they'd probably be all better off if you didn't join in the first place. You're a disgrace to your father."_

Tony frowned. Maybe they weren't going to bust in and grab him after all.

"They're not coming. No bids yet." Hammer supplied, gesturing at a laptop on the table. He picked it up and carried it across the pine cone littered floor for Tony to see.

A picture of himself, with the caption of 'Tony Stark for sale' written next to it. Looking further down the page, he saw a list of, what were presumably, bidders.

"We've had one guy in Bulgaria bid $50,000 but then some other person bid $125,000,000. It kind of went on like that, then this one cropped up." Hammer fiddled with the track pad until he found the most recent bidder. "A Mr... Raza? Is that? Bid a prompt $300,000,000."

Tony would be lying if he said he wasn't scared by this.

If Raza got his hands on him.. It'd be Afghanistan all over again. More caves... More torture... And no Yinsen either.

"Don't worry yourself Anthony, you still have... 6 hours and twenty seven minutes before your new owner is decided."

"Owner?"

"Yes, see, you are for sale, so naturally, whoever bids the highest will own you after that period is up and we successfully have the money."

Tony sighed, and silently regretted not donating more money to that charity stopping Human Trafficking. It was unnerving.

"Can you ah, scroll up? I want to see whose so desperate as to want to 'own' me." He asked as Hammer started to scroll up slowly.

Tony was reading it all mentally in his head. 'Mr Green, Miss Havery, Mr Banks, Mr Freix..." He cursed silently as he saw none of the tell tale signs of Shield, or Pepper for that matter. Maybe they didn't want him back after all. He wouldn't put it past Fury. But he thought Pepper... At least...

"I guess your looking for your lovely lady friend to bid all your money on you? Am I correct?" That was Mr Creavers voice. It was starting to annoy him almost as much as Hammers.

"Hammer, show him the article." He saw Creaver gesture at the laptop as Hammer fumbled with it again, setting up a new web page. It was for a newspaper, and on it was a picture of him and Pepper. Eyes focusing on the actual words- he began to read.

_'After a shocking revelation yesterday in which Tony Stark was kidnapped and put up in auction, a new scandal has come to light, in the form of his girlfriend Virginia 'Pepper' Potts._

_Ms Potts was seen leaving a friends apartment yesterday evening, and giving him a juicy kiss on the lips as she left. But this is no ordinary friend however, this man is none other than Tony Stark's friend, ally, and team mate, Captain America! _

_Miss Norman, in the celebrity relationships department has hence told us exclusively, that Miss Potts and Mr America have been dating behind Tony's back for no less than five months! _

_Intel also tells us that Potts also has no intention of succumbing to the kidnappers demands, as it clearly states in Tony's will, that everything is left to her in his death.'_

Tony blinked. Steve? Steve and Pepper? Pepper and Steve? He continued blinking furiously as his eyes fell upon a picture of Pepper slapping her lips against Steve's mouth as they embraced each other. He felt sick. He couldn't believe Pepper would have... He couldn't believe Steve was... Was she really only in it for the money?

"C'mon Hammer, let us just take a minute to let it sink into Starks shrapnel filled heart that his girlfriend only likes him for his money. It's a shame really. She was a beautiful girl."

Tony blanched as he thought about Pepper. She understood him better than anyone. She could calm him down after a nightmare, she could drag him out of his lab after having spent three days straight in there. Was it really just for the money? She hadn't actually meant any of it?

He felt depleted, as though his battery had finally drained. He could feel his heart beating numbly, but it didn't feel like it was beating at all.

That was what was wrong with him though, wasn't it? The money. The fame. That was the problem with the planet, everyone was only ever interested in something for the money.

Self appreciation didn't matter. Self respect didn't matter. Appreciation for others didn't matter either. People had only ever wanted him for the money, the fame, they never wanted to get to know the real Tony. The one that loved having movie marathons and going to Shwarma. The one who would happily make his friends new gadgets, the one who'd always try to put on a brave face.

He hated this planet. He hated the universe. He hated Fury. He hated Steve. Hell, now he thought about it he hated Pepper.

He'd felt horrible after what he'd put her through the other day. Now he didn't regret it at all. And he hated himself for it.


	8. Knives and Relations

**Honestly? Honestly, honestly? This chapter was difficult. I have tried with the whump, but I doubt it's up to some of your standards. I'm no biologist, so I couldn't be overly wordy with different names for bones and muscles and stuff- but I promise I have tried! Please let me know how I could improve the whump in this chapter, as literally, I haven't got a clue. I love reading whump and everything, but dayum it's difficult to write. So, all help is extremely welcome!**

**Again, thank you to everyone who's been taking the time to read this, follow, and favourite. It's incredible. Thank-you!**

**Next chapter probably won't be till Monday at least because of no internet :/ sorry about that. **

**I still don't own anything btw. Please review and let me know how I can improve! Please I feel like I'm walking into some brambles blind folded (I'm not begging -_- :P )**

**Enjoy!**

**Also! undeadTyrant- Hands! Got it! Thanks! :D**

"Pepper, where are you-"  
"The bank- I have to get Tony back."  
"We'll get him out though Pepper, we have Shield agents scanning for his Arc and-"  
"But what if you don't? What if something goes wrong and you can't get him back? Then what?"  
"Then we'll try again."  
"But what if you can't try again? What if he's already gone?"  
Pepper looked fiercely into Natasha's eyes. Natasha knew that arguing was only going to make matters worse.  
"Pepper... You've already bid £750,000,000 on him." She sighed as she pulled up the website on the Stark Tablet Tony had given her as a Christmas present last year.  
"See? You're still the highest bidder."  
"I don't trust that though. I don't trust that there's no one prepared to bid last minute." Pepper sighed and let her head fall into her hands.  
"Nat- c'mere- you need to see this." Clint ushered Natasha out of the room and he smiled weakly at Pepper, who didn't give him a second glance.  
"What is it?"  
"This." He said as he pushed his own tablet in front of her.  
She read the news article, a stony face turning to shock horror and she scanned it.  
"Is it..?"  
"Only one way to find out." Clint sighed as he barged his way towards the Helicarriers gym. Natasha had only seen him like that once before. Even her, with her fierce temper would hate to be on the receiving end.  
"STEVE!" She heard a roar as Clint had run into the gym.  
She followed him in slowly. Trying not to betray the guiltiness she felt for Steve. She was under no impression he wouldn't date Pepper, especially seeing as she was Tony's girlfriend.  
"Is this true?!" Clint thrust the Tablet under Steve's sweaty nose, he wrapped a towel around his neck and started to read, his eyes growing wider as he got further down the page. "Well is it?" Clint asked again. After herself and Coulson, Tony was Clint's best friend. The one he could pull pranks on the rest of the team mates with, and they both shared the same feeling of closeness. She couldn't bare to think what this was doing to him. Tony was Clint's friend, Clint was Tony's. So she could hardly blame him from being on the protective side- all be it a little over protective of his friends love affairs.  
Steve was in shock.  
"No! Of course not! I like Pepper but... As a friend! I'd never, ever!" Steve was beside him self, as was Clint.  
"Well, this article is currently on the front of papers, on the Internet- so you better hope to God Pepper doesn't see this- or Tony for that matter! He's going to need all the help he can get!"  
Steve's cheeks were burning red as he looked between the two Agents.  
"When are we going after him?" Steve asked. "It's killing me just sitting here. We have less than five hours now, then he'll move again!"  
"We know, they're trying their best to find the location, but it's been scrambled. We're getting readings from England, all the way over to China." Natasha replied apologetically. She felt the need to apologise for Clint's behaviour later; but for now they had a different problem.  
"What if we don't find him before the five hours?" Steve questioned the pair, ignoring the faces of the surrounding Agents as they worked out.  
"Then we'll get him- eventually." Clint replied.  
"Is Fury bidding?" Steve wondered aloud and was answered almost immediately by Natasha.  
"Yes- and Pepper. Though he has no intention of handing money over."  
"Surely they'll be expecting that?"  
"Probably." She agreed. The three stood contemplating their current predicament.

* * *

Tony found that if he asked in the right way, he could answers out of Nigel and Geoff. He'd overheard them sulking to each other while Hammer and Creaver were fumbling with something inside the tent. Apparently Hammer had left the zip up door open and a wasp had gotten in.  
"This is a waste of time." He heard Nigel growl under his breath at Geoff, who nodded in agreement.  
"I know, but think of the money!"  
"I don't care about the money, this is wrong."  
Tony was almost taken a back at the fact that these two men actually had a conscience. Listening to them arguing about morals was quite interesting.  
"I know it is, but Hammer said it would be a simple hit. Nothing more. He lied to us."  
"Excuse me?" Tony couldn't bear it any longer as he heard the two bickering.  
"What?" Geoff turned to face him, Tony noticed how grumpy he looked.  
"Urm... Feel free to leave? I guess? If Hammers promised you something and he hasn't delivered you should just leave. I know I would."  
"But your tied to a tree so that's not gonna work is it?" Nigel snarled at him.  
"All I'm saying is: life's to short to be dealing with butt-heads like Hammer. If you untie me, then I'll make sure you only have to put up with at least... 3 years in jail, maximum."  
Tony stared at the two men, putting as much emphasis into his words as possible. If these two men actually came to sense and untied him while Hammer and Creaver were pretending to be nine year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert over a wasp, then he could easily slip away and into the trees. Maybe snatching the laptop away with him too if he was lucky.  
"Grab your stuff then." Geoff said to Nigel as he gathered his few belongings together. Tony would have grinned but he wasn't out yet. After five minutes, Nigel and Geoff had their duffle bags slumped over their shoulders and were marching out of the clearing.  
"Hey!" Tony yelled after them, still tied to the tree. "You haven't untied me yet!" He said exasperated, hoping it was their idea of an unfunny joke.  
"Oh, we're leaving, your staying." Geoff said nonchalantly as he and his brother walked from the clearing.  
"What? How much do you want? I'll pay you to let me go!" He yelled at them, wriggling madly.  
"Aha, no. We don't think your death will matter that much to us to be honest, almost like revenge."  
"Revenge?" Tony questioned in disbelief.  
"Our uncle, you might have known him. Obadiah? Well, we're Nigel and Geoff Stane. It was a pleasure meeting you... Actually, while I think about it.." Tony would have flinched as Nigel drew out a long, shining, silver knife if it weren't for sheer pride. But he knew this knife wasn't going to be for untying his bonds. Nigel walked slowly closer, leaves and other forest floor items crunching beneath him with each step. Holding the knife in front of him, he advanced on Tony.  
Tony felt the blood leave his face as he felt the blood curdling blade enter his body. It had gone straight through two pieces of rope and into his left arm. He grimaced. He was too proud to flinch. He was too proud to make a sound. He clenched his teeth together as Nigel pulled out the knife unevenly, making sure to cut through a few more important arm factors as he went, including tearing the bicep apart, because Tony felt a surge of pain spread across his upper arm. Tony began to feel a hot liquid ooze gracefully across his arm and he steeled himself, looking towards the cut, to find a red substance creeping and seeping into the rope, dying it a deep maroon.  
He had thought it was over, that it was just that, but he was wrong. He did let out a small gasp as he felt it enter his hand. Again of his left side. He felt the shining blade, now dripping with his blood enter through the skin, and straight through to the other side, feeling it scrape across bones as it went, until it sliced open the other side. The pain was excruciating. But he bit it back and thought to himself: _yeah, you did deserve it. You killed the guy after all. It's not like anyone's gonna care if you don't come back because you've bled to death is it?_ His thoughts were rendered mute however as he felt blade enter again, but he was slightly glad it wasn't just his left side they were providing pain to.  
He wouldn't admit it, but he screamed as he felt the dagger enter his body again. This time it was more gentle however, but still provided the same amount of pain as he felt the knife slice above his left eye brow gracefully. Tony couldn't see, but he thanked his lucky stars it was from blood incasing his vision rather than from going blind.  
He welcomed the dull, numb sensation washing over his body- because his arm, hand, and face was on fire. He could feel his heart pounding against the fresh wounds, but it was soothing, a common rhythm he could follow.  
They continued to walk out the clearing, he could hear them sniggering until he couldn't see them any more.

"Tell Uncs we say hi when your dead alright?" Geoff called over his shoulder as Tony wallowed in the pain threatening to tear him apart.

"What's going on?" A berated Hammer clambered from the tent, a nice red lump forming over his left eyebrow, undoubtably that's where the wasp got him.  
Tony tried to talk but his mouth was full of blood from where it was trickled down his face. He could feel his head going lighter with each gentle hammer of the heart.  
"Where are they?" Hammer said, frantically looking around for the two men.  
Tony tried to speak again, but all of his efforts were going into trying not to fall into the darkness that was circling him. Slowly, he let himself fall from consciousness, welcoming the numb that came with it.


	9. Floating and Soup

**Chapter.. 9? Is it? Anyway, I've got a really long one coming up, so I think this one's quite short. I don't actually know. I don't have Word Count on my phone. **

**Thanks again to everyone who is reviewing and giving me tips and advice, it means a lot :) **

**I think I've done a bit better with explaining hurt on this one. But whatever. **

**So... Enjoy! **

**(sorry about the awful paragraphing too btw, it seems to change from putting it on here from my phone. I'll be back with my laptop soon though thank God) **

**Also, please let me know what you think of it! This is me kinda practising for English again because I'my doing my GCSE's. I got an A (estimated by the teacher) in the analysing some text before the holidays. So I need to practise creative. Anyway, review, favourite, like, and enjoy! **

"Tears of joy... I hate job hunting." Tony was floating. Where he didn't know. He just knew he was hovering on something, and someone was calling his name.

But he couldn't listen to that voice. Because there was another voice. A gentle voice. A voice he knew. A voice he trusted. He wanted to listen to that voice. Not the other one.

"And then you left me there? By myself?" The voice was soothing. What it was saying he didn't know. All he knew was that he wanted to listen. Wanted to know, wanted to understand.

"If you keep ogling her like that..." He clung on to every word. It was like the thread of thin wire that would take him to his destination.

But then the other voice was growing louder. Harsher, more intense.

"Tony!" He closed his eyes. He didn't want to hear that voice. He didn't want to know.

"Tony!" It was drowning out the soothing voice. He wanted the nice voice to stay. He wanted the other voice to go.

"Tony!" It was growing louder. He wanted the owner of the other voice. He wanted to tell her he loved her. What she meant to him. How much he cared about her.

BANG!

His eye flew open. The other one tried to but his eyelid was met by a thick bruise, raised and swollen, preventing it from achieving its goal. He squinted as the light blinded him. Shutting his eye tightly again, he began to feel the throb flowing down his arm. Convulsing painfully as his heart beat. He wanted to yell for it to stop. But he knew it wouldn't. It felt heavy, like a dead weight pulling down the rest of his body.

The sensation then slowly crept further down his arm until it reached his wrist, where he let out a small gasp as his hand caught fire. Burning from the inside out. His fingers felt cold as though someone had dipped them in a freezer. It was then that he realised he was shaking violently. Peering out of his good eye again he saw blinding orange circle staring down at him. For a second he thought his suit had gone wrong, that it was going to shoot him. He flinched as he embraced himself for the impact. It never came.

"Look at me." The voice was harsh and cold. He knew that voice, but he couldn't put voice to face.

His pupils adjusted to the light slightly and he was able to see the area around him. The tents were missing. "We're moving. Any funny business and this goes through your other arm." Tony frowned, but it made the muscles on his face pull his forehead, making it tight and painful against the gash. He resorted back to his stiff poker face. He felt a hand roughly grasp his other shoulder- the one connected to the good arm- and hoist him upwards as the ropes tying him to the tree fell away.

He collapsed. Knees buckling under themselves as the blood rushed from his head. Flopping on a great heap on the ground he lay still. Eyes shut tight. Willing the unconsciousness to engulf him again. He wanted to hear that voice again.

He felt something on his arm, and a second later he yelled as something grasped the stab wound. Making his muscle contract and causing more pain to wash through.

"Get up." Tony didn't move. He couldn't move. He was battling heavily trying not to succumb to the tears welling in his eyes as the grasp tightened. He wanted to sink into the abyss of sleep, let the waves wash over him, push away the pain.

He screamed as the harsh grip tightened, twisting his arm in an upper Chinese burn. His face contorted as he fought with the horrible sensation. He knew pain. But not like this.

Dark fog started to mist his vision again, and he welcomed the change in scenery. Until it started to vanish again and reality brought him back to life.

He felt his stomach give a churn as something bubbled inside him, rising painfully as it clawed it's way upwards. He knelt on the ground, all fours shaking sickeningly as let out a dry heave. Something wanted to come out, but nothing would. He could taste bile in his mouth as it mingled with the saliva, another great heave sent that tumbling from his mouth as it went. His stomach was kicking up a storm as he felt another wave a nausea wash over him. His head was spinning. He wanted it to stop. He wanted the relief of death to come. He wanted to die.

"Christ sake. Just chuck him in the van." Hammer said, obviously disgusted by the heaving billionaire, whimpering with each gasp of air as his stomach searched for something to throw at the air.

Tony felt arms lift him into a fire mans lift and his arm yelled at him as it was thrust in an unruly manner into a new position behind him. He didn't notice as his head collided with the cold floor of the van as he was thrown inside.

He lay there. A pile of mess on the floor. Blood dripping in a slow red waterfall over his eye as the wound reopened. Throwing up bile every now and again as his stomach yelled about its mistreatment.

He felt the van begin to roll again and he slid down and crashed against the door, hitting his head with a deafening thud as it took off down the road. He thanked whatever small person was looking out for him that he wasn't thrown down on his other side.

And with that, Tony flew into the hazy unconsciousness like a moth takes to a flame. Lapping up the comfort and ease that came with it.

"Do you think that's accurate?" Natasha asked Bruce, looking at the many screens Bruce was messing with.

"I think so- I mean- it wouldn't hurt to check it out would it?" He replied, typing madly as he finished his work.

"Clint, go and get Thor and Steve, I'll prepare a quinjet- Bruce, you coming?" She asked the scientist as she walked from the room, pausing in the door way.

"Yep. I think the Other Guy wouldn't mind giving these people a piece of his mind- and his fist." Natasha grinned at him as she jogged along the corridor. Happy that Bruce was letting the Other Guy come out for once.

"Romanoff!" Where do you think your going?" She stopped in her tracks as she heard Fury's voice behind her.

"Routine check on the Quinjet, sir" she said with ease. She'd be a rubbish assassin if she couldn't lie.

"Now, you wouldn't be attempting to go and get Stark would you?" He said, hands on his hips.

What would he have against it? She knew he wanted him back, Fury may not like Tony too much, but he wouldn't want him dead would he?

"You want him back as much as us." She told him, not showing the worry in her voice. He faltered. "You don't do you? You don't want him to come back? What the hell Fury?" She could feel the rage building inside of her. She couldn't believe any of this. Fury didn't want Tony to come back? Fury wanted to just let him fall into whatever dark hole was ready for him?

"Stark is a liability to SHIELD."

"Stark is the reason the defence systems up to scratch." She defended.

"These people who we're dealing with know what they're doing. They want revenge. They want him dead."

"It's friggin' Hammer! I've met him! He's an idiot! He doesn't have balls for anything!"

"I'm not just talking about Hammer." Fury warned, his voice was slow but Natasha could feel the rage burning off of him.

"There's someone else involved?" Natasha questioned disbelievingly.

"We haven't put any money towards it because the bidders already been decided." He supplied.

"Who is it?" She gawped. This was a trap she should have foreseen.

"We don't know" Fury admitted. Natasha could feel her face burning as red as her hair.

"I guess we'll just have to get him before it resorts to that then." She said, turning on her heel and walking briskly away.

"Natasha." She stopped. Fury never called her by her first name. "He doesn't want our help."

"How can you say that?!" She cried. Fury was admittedly a complete idiot sometimes but this was something else.

"We had an argument. I'm not proud of it."

"I know, I saw, I was there. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a shit about that any more. I think he'll be more concerned with his life, and whoever these sick bastards are going to be selling him to!"

She glared at Fury who simply returned the stare as she turned and sprinted towards the main hangar bay.

Tony felt someone grip his mouth as they yanked it open. Throwing some chunky liquid down his throat.

He spluttered and coughed as it lodged, pushing it back into his mouth.

"It's soup." Someone told him as more of the cold stuff was added. He decided to swallow and felt his stomach thank him as food was on the way.

His arm and hand had grown into a numb throb as whatever protein was in the soup attempted to work its magic. The food stopped coming and he heard a door close with a loud clang as metal hit metal.

He could feel the mass of sleep build up in his eyes and opened them slightly. He forced the swollen eye open, and found his eyelid curl under the painful eyebrow.

His nose twitched as a potent odour filled the room. It stank. He was in a wooded hut; with a concrete floor was uneven, causing several sudden dips. The door however was metal, as was the frame. He could tell it was new compared to the rest of the hut though.

He could here the gentle drip of water trickling down one of the wooded panes and saw mould spreading across too. It was filthy.

He shut his eyes again. How had he ended up here?

He wanted someone to talk to. He wanted someone to be there for him. He wanted to have someone to trust. Tell him that everything would be okay. But of course it wouldn't be okay, and he knew it.


	10. Broken Nails and Equations

**Heyya, new chapter, don't know what to write here, enjoy :) **

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**3 Days previous**

Tony was bored, and fuming as he stalked the corridors of the Helicarrier. He wanted nothing better than to twang Fury's eyepatch back into his eye socket. The man was unbelievable. Accusing him of being a dead weight on Sheild, when in actual fact the secret organisation would be crawling on the ground if it weren't for him. Fury didn't realise how much Tony did for Shield, and the man threatening with replacing him obviously didn't realise it. The nerve of it.

Eventually he arrived at the lab, where he knew Bruce would be. Striding in, he held his head aloft- to show that he was perfectly fine. The smell of boiling chemicals and burning metals was astronomical as it flooded his nostrils. He made a quick mental note telling him to sort out a new air filtering system for the Helicarrier- or maybe even just a new Helicarrier full stop- this one was a dump.

He caught sight of his friend fiddling with a whiteboard marker as he scuttled over to him; itching to try out all of the equipment, and tamper with it. But first he wanted to blow off some steam, before Fury returned and pissed him off any more.

"Hey." Bruce said, not looking up from the whiteboard where he was now scribbling down the numerous equations and formulas.

"Hey." Tony replied. He sounded perfectly fine, but he knew Bruce would be able to see straight through it.

"Fury?" Bruce questioned, still not looking up from the board.

"Yep." Bruce smiled as Tony let out a long sigh. "The stupid bald man with that stupid eye patch. Why does he even have that eyepatch?"

"Anyone would have thought you don't like him." Bruce grinned as Tony snorted, surveying Bruce's workings.

"He's such a git though. He has the nerve to question my ability as an Avenger- admittedly I'm no where near as good as you, or Steve, or Natasha or Clint, or Thor, but still- when he already knows full well that- Woops." Tony looked up to see an annoyed Fury standing in the door way, hands on his hips and one eye glaring at Tony. Tony felt his body tense.

He quickly looked away in attempt to cover his tracks. "Yeah Bruce, this equation here is wrong? See?" He said quickly, trying to cover his tracks. It wasn't wrong at all, but he just need a scape goat. He glanced up a Fury, not making eye contact but still registering the mans brutal stare.

"Yes Nicholas?" Tony sighed, turning again towards Fury, who was now breathing heavily through his nose like a bull about to charge.

"Nothing" the man replied, turning and swishing his coat, not unlike Dracula. Tony blinked at the now empty space in the doorway, surprised, and a little nervous.

He turned back to Bruce who had stopped working, who was also scowling at the doorway.

"Well Tony," he sighed, going back to his calculator "I think you're in shit." Tony was about to reply when a woman spoke over the Helicarrier speakers.

"All Avengers to report to meeting room 2b, all Avengers report to meeting room 2b." The speaker fizzled and cracked as the message ended, followed by a loud clunk as the woman put down the com.

"Black Sabbath was definitely better." Tony pointed out and Bruce nodded as they made their way towards the part of the ship that was dedicated entirely to meeting rooms.

"What were you working on anyway? Looked big." Tony said, trying to strike conversation.

"Oh, nothing." Bruce replied half-heartedly. Tony narrowed his eyes as he thought of a reason why Bruce wasn't being entirely helpful, or at least tell him what he was up to.

"There must be something I can help with? Seriously though, what're you working on? If its a drug that'll make Clint stop snoring that's great." Tony grinned as he prodded the scientist who shrugged it off. Underneath the smile, Tony was scowling heavily.

"No, nothing like that." Bruce smiled weakly at his friends attempt to make him talk.

"Please Bruce! Let me help! Shield aren't letting me do anything with anything! Christ, I have to hack into the bloody computer to see what's for lunch!" Tony sighed as he stared at his shoes. He wasn't lying, Shield weren't telling him anything. They were keeping him in the dark, like a bomb that could detonate at any moment. Guilt gripped Bruce and tied his stomach in a knot, so he also glanced at his shoes.

"I'm working on a cure for a bug- a stomach bug- it's being contained in Malaysia at the moment, but there's fear it might spread."

"Well... I can help with that! Do you need funding? I can get Jarvis to run some schematics and-"

"Trust me Tony, I've got this." Bruce assured him. Though Tony didn't believe him one hundred percent. The two men clambered into yet another corridor and began to walk along, stopping as they reached room 2b.

Glancing at each other, they pushed the heavy door open, and Tony's eyes fell upon Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor, all of whom were already seated around the table. He sighed heavily as he made his way towards his seat. The look on Steve's face told him that he knew about the argument between him and Fury that had taken place earlier.

Nobody said anything as the team sat there, waiting for Fury to arrive. Tony scanned the room, surveying his surroundings and team mates expressions, and jumped as he heard the door handle click and swing open with Fury and Coulson standing in the door way.

"Stark, a word?" Coulson directed at Tony, of whom felt five pairs of eyes draw on him.

Oh God, he thought to himself What have I done now?

"Why?" He asked, seeing Fury's eye narrow as it turned on him.

"Mr Stark..." Coulson started to speak but Tony had already cut him off.

"No, Mr Coulson, I want to know why I'm always getting treated like that kid the teacher hates, or the least favourite pet that the owners feel too guilty to get rid of. I want to know why I have to find everything out for myself, anything to do with Shield until I hack into the server; then only to get yelled at. It's like you don't even want me here." He frowned as he saw Steve's, Clint's, Natasha's, Bruce's and Thor's face, each one frowning back at him. He scowled as his eyes met Fury's, whose expression told no lies.

Standing up coolly, he announced "Fine then, Clint, see you at the party yeah? Shield can go stuff it. Fury, shove your eyepatch up your crack. I'm going.", then, he shouldered Fury as he stormed from the room. Turning around again, eyeing Fury fiercely, he added "and I never want Shields help again- you've been nothing but a pain ever since you showed up on my doorstep. Fuck you."

He was beside himself as he promised to make Fury's life a living hell. He would still be an Avenger, he'd still be living in Stark Tower with the other Avengers- but he sure as hell wasn't going to be playing by Fury's rules anymore.

* * *

Tony grasped at the thin woollen jacket he had draped over his shoulders, pulling it tighter around him. Oh how he wished he hadn't said those things. He wished he hadn't of stormed out.

His arm and hand let out a whimper of protest as he flopped on to his side, trying to keep warm. His breath was coming in greats puffs of white air, looking like small clouds as they separated and dispersed into the atmosphere.

He wanted home. He wanted Pepper. He wanted Jarvis. He wanted a hug. He sat upright as he heard the metallic click of the bolt unlock, and the squeaky hinges groaned impatiently.

"So you're Tony Stark?" The man was new. He'd never met him before. Tony registered the slight twang of a Russian accent in his voice.

"Apparently so." Tony replied thickly, his mouth was dry, but by now he knew it was considered bad manners if he didn't reply to whoever was speaking to him.

The man smirked, he was wearing a tweed suit, and had his hands in his pockets. Tony eyed him curiously, wondering who this new stranger was. He certainly wasn't Creaver or Hammer.

"I believe you've heard of us? I am Mr Greenwich." The man held out his right hand. Tony simply looked at it. He'd managed to bandage his torn arm and hand, so the wound wasn't visible any more, though the vile maroon coating that had been painted on it as the wounds opened at some point that day.

"Ah yes, I forgot you're not so powerful without your suit are you?" The man sneered and Tony scowled. Everyone was always comparing him to the suit. They all looked up to the Iron Man, never the person behind it.

"I have a proposal for you, Mr Stark." Greenwich said, holding his hands behind his back and looking innocently at Tony, who didn't like where this was going.

"We know about you getting kicked off the Avengers, but compared to the rest of them you are a weakling, aren't you?" Tony wanted to punch this man in the face. He might not be working with Shield anymore, but he was still an Avenger. He was still a team mate. He still had the awesomest friends in the world. They'd come looking for him, even if Fury wouldn't let them. Fury wouldn't really want him to die. Imagine all the paperwork. He would send people to go after him... Shit.

"According to this Mr Stark, you said you have nothing to do with Shield anymore. Is that correct?" The man held was clutching a piece of paper, reading it intently. Tony gulped.

"You said you never want they're help again?" Tony bit his lip. He knew from the moment he said them that those words were going to come back and bite him on the backside. "Well is it?" The man questioned, searching Tony's bloodied up face. He then touched his ear and spoke into it. "Shield aren't a problem to us. Begin Operation Eagle." He turned to far Tony again, of whom was viciously chewing his lip. "You will be joining us. But for now, I expect you get a good night sleep- while you can." He then stormed from the room.

Tony sighed. Shield weren't going to help him. He doubted the Avengers would disobey Fury's orders- that was usually his job, and Pepper was already thinking him as dead. He wished he'd controlled his anger a bit, he wished he'd been a better boyfriend. He wished he wasn't Tony Stark. Because whatever Operation Eagle was, he didn't like the sound of it, and didn't want to know what it entailed.

He began to crawl across the damp floor towards the door, lifting up his arm heavily as he did so, reaching a none damp patch and he flopped there. The strain on his arm causing a pain he'd never felt before. It was like having a unmovable weight sellotaped to his arm.

He began scratching at the wall, causing grooves in it, swearing heavily every now and again at a nail broke off. He knew he wouldn't be able to escape, not with his body in the state it was in. But he had to try. He had to try to get out. Because he didn't know what tomorrow was going to bring, but he sure as hell knew he wasn't going to like it.


	11. Splinters and Cures

**New chapter! Hope you enjoy it :) **

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_Huh, I didn't feel that one_ Tony thought to himself as he pulled out yet another splinter that had embedded itself in his hand. He was aching all over, from the knees that were raw red from keeping his body aloft as he scratched, to his fingers which were supporting around fifteen splinters altogether. At one point he'd attempted to use his other hand, only to find a wash of pain spread up his arm- so he gave up on that idea pretty sharpish.

He coughed violently, and realised he was freezing cold. Giving up on the idea of tunnelling his way out, he proceeded to curl up into a ball. It was a ball of warmth. A ball of protection. Nobody could hurt him when he was in his ball. Not a soul could touch him.

He looked up as the door clicked open again, to see several men wearing complete black, including a bullet proof vest, standing in the door way. Each man was thick set, with a large square jaw and furrowed brows. It made Tony think about Mr Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch._ At least Stitch had someone who loved him_, he thought bitterly as Greenwich entered the room. Greenwich turned to face the centimetre thick hole Tony had dug in the wall.

"Well, you have been busy haven't you? Hammer always was a twat. Grab him."

Tony let out a muffled yell as several hands grabbed him. He felt himself being hoisted up by the scruff of his neck and lifted into a tense fireman's lift. He began kicking his feet violently- what good it would do he didn't now, but he at least had to try. Let it never be said that Tony Stark doesn't go down without a fight. He head butted one of the men in the nose, it caused his cut to split open and start trickling blood, but he didn't care as he saw the red liquid spurt like ketchup from the mans nose. He swore violently.

Someone elbowed him across the head and he went dizzy, before shaking his head and begin wriggling wildly, escaping the mans grip and falling to the floor, where he felt his torso crush his arm. He began to crawl backwards as the men surrounded him, before hurriedly standing up. His legs were wobbly and his head was light as he stumbled backwards, before turning and running as quickly as he could down the corridor.

He paused as he reached a split. Not looking back in fear they would be closer than he'd like- he chose right, and began pelting towards another thick set of doors. How big was this place?

He halted as he peered through a window of one of the offices. A woman with ginger hair pulled back in a pony tail. She had her back turned. Pepper?

The hesitant seconds he stood questioning whether it was indeed her resulted in thick arms seizing him around the middle and tearing him away from the window where the woman stood. She hadn't seen him. Oblivious of the commotion outside.

He wriggled and writhed some more as more hands grabbed him and started carrying him away. He had to get back to Pepper. He had to.

He felt as he was picked off the ground a shoved into a brown sack, where he kicked violently as the bag shook while whoever was carrying him walked along. He started to yell- but nothing was done.

Tony knew the top of the bag had been tied, but he attempted to reach the opening anyway, sweating wildly as the bag grew more stuffy with his breathing. He felt himself being tossed haphazardly into something, and he yelled some more. Praying for someone to come and help him. Anyone. No one replied.

He found a comfortable position and slouched there, still sitting in the sack. Until unknown and unwanted hands started to feel the bag from the outside, he attempted to dodge them but proved unsuccessful as his hands were yanked behind him and tied together from the outside. No chewing through the binds then.

Tony let out a deep sigh as he felt his legs being yanked too and fastened tightly together. He supposed that from the outside he'd look like a Mummy.

He felt the vehicle move and heard the steady rumble of an engine.

He'd seen Pepper! He knew she was okay! But she was with these people... The same people who had stuffed him in a sack like a potato. He mentally shook his head. Pepper wasn't working with these people, was she? She didn't have something to do with this? Did she? He gulped as he thought of how he'd seen her standing in that office through the tiny window. He wanted to see her properly. He wanted to let her know that she wasn't a fool for only caring about his money. After all, who didn't care? No one cared about Tony. No one cared if he lived of died. Heck, his fate was probably on a betting sheet somewhere.

He gritted his teeth as he felt himself rolling over due to no less than a speed bump. He promised himself that once he was out of this he'd restart his life. Without the Avengers. Without Pepper. Without Iron Man.

Yes, he wasn't as strong as Iron Man, but he had, after all, made the suit, and was it not just him who'd just ran off from several scary looking men? Including one who he gave a broken nose to?

He felt the vehicle stop and heard the slam of doors as they were opened and shut. He was alone.

Pepper was running a hand through her hair. She had to know where Tony was, she had to get him back- safe. She knew the Avengers were doing all they could to get him back, but she feared it wouldn't be enough. She also knew they wouldn't have the support of Shield if anything did go wrong- and she appreciated that. That they would get in major trouble if anything did happen. Going against Fury's orders. She could see now why Tony didn't like him. The man was a jerk. A complete idiot. If she was in Tonys shoes she doubted she'd turn up for half the meetings Tony was always having to go to.

Her attempts at buying him back were futile- she should have known they wouldn't give him back so easily. But she wondered who he was with now, what they were doing. It sickened her to think he was revisiting Afghanistan all over again.

She had, though by accident, found out that the tabloids were 'shipping' her and Steve. That they were also persecuting her for abandoning Tony. She wasn't abandoning Tony. Steve and her were friends, but nothing more or less. She loved Tony. She loved Tony for himself- not for the money as the news was claiming. She just prayed that Tony didn't see the story currently wrapping the world. It would destroy him. Completely.

"Hey, Bruce?" Natasha asked, thinking of something suddenly as the Avengers were crammed in the Quinjet.

"Yeah?" He looked nervous, though they all did. They didn't know what state they'd find him in- let alone if they'd find him at all.

"What were you and Tony talking about? Before the big Fury row? He looked grumpy?"

"What do you mean? I wasn't there for the argument. I was in Texas, remember?" Bruce and Natasha were confused. Bruce had walked in with Tony, he'd witnessed the whole argument. "Then I came back, and while walking to the tower I saw Tony being.. Taken.. The first time." Bruce stared at his teammates quizzically. He remembered being in Texas, he remembered stopping at 711 to get a Slurpee... But he couldn't remember. "You don't think..?"

Steve was talking furiously into an earpiece.

"Get up all workings Dr Banner did while working in the lab three days ago." Bruce was confused. Steve turned to look at him "do you remember working out a cure for that virus in Malaysia?"

"What? No." Bruce replied, trying to rack his brain. The team swayed slightly as the jet encountered turbulence.

"We have to land, whatever happened to Bruce might tell us more about these people." Steve said quickly, standing his authority flag high.

"But they could have moved on by then!" Clint said quickly.

"I shall fly Banner back to the Shield base." Thor suggested in a half roar. Bruce looked nervous.

"I'm okay, really Thor." He assured the God.

"They've gotten the results back for what you were working on Bruce." Steve said, still touching his ear. How many times everyone had told him he told him he didn't need to was unbelievable. "Some sort of cure... For a virus named Eagle?"

"Eagle? Doesn't ring a bell." Bruce said shaking his head as he scanned his brain.

"This can't be a coincidence. You don't suppose whoever did this did this to make Bruce forget the cure, do you?" Clint asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know. But I thin there's more to this than we previously thought. I'm turning the jet around." Natasha decided, as the jet made a u-turn in the air and they headed back to the Helicarrier.

Whatever was happening in Malaysia, whatever this virus was, it had to be stopped, and maybe, just maybe, it'd help them find Tony.


	12. Trucks and Gift Shops

**New chapter! Let me know what you think :) **

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His arm was killing him in its awkward position, but never the less he began attempting to naw away at the materials thick materials in which he was trapped. Undoubtably there would be some security, but he at least had to try. If not for escaping, but for his arm at least**. **

He began to prize the cable ties off his hands, which was considerably easy because of the material, allowing his hands to slip out. He looked at the scab on his hand with what little light he had, and was pleased to see it was healing over nicely. His arm was still giving off a dull ache however, and he winced as he prized the bandages he'd made off it- they had congealed and stuck to the scab, it was all a bloody mess.

He then began to try and kick the cable ties off his feet, which was made difficult by the fact that his shoes were in the way. He grabbed his foot through the rough material and began to take the shoes off, no less than a minute later his feet were free.

Tony began to tear at the material, and whooped quietly and it slowly teared. Soon, he had made a whole big enough for him to clamber out of.

He was in a van. It was empty, except for himself, and a bench, where he supposed the men had sat while in transit.

Slowly, he stood up, and wobbled a bit, leaning against the van wall as he swayed. He waited a few seconds before walking towards the back doors of the van. It wouldn't open from the inside. Fuck. He could hear low voices outside, and stopped trying to prise open the door to listen.

"Do you think he'll do it?"

"Definitely."

"It's a big risk..."

"He'll do it. If he's pushed in the right direction..."

"But what direction? How?"

Tony decided he didn't want to find out which direction these people were talking about; so a quickly and quietly as he possibly could, he walked to the other side of the van, where he was surprised to see a small door. He decided this was a rather large van. Possibly a small lorry.

The door opened and he beamed, as he clambered into the front part, where he quickly decided it was a new breed of lorry, possibly a hybrid. He ducked and lay on the seat as he saw a numerous amount of men, all yielding guns, in pairs talking to each other, surrounding a rather large black door into a larger white building with few windows.

He fumbled around, and opened the glove box. There was nothing inside except a red cap, where he thrust it on his head, just lower than his hair line so that his face was cast in shadow. He found the lock button and clicked it, grinning as he saw the locks disappear into the door. Slowly, ever so slowly, he sat up on the drivers seat. If there's one thing he knew, aside from how to build neat stuff, it was how to Hotwire stuff.

The engine started and he beamed, as he reversed the truck. A few men looked up and he waved and honked the horn, which was difficult with an arm which was throbbing painfully.

He saw men running after the lorry and firing their guns madly as he drove quickly as he could in the truck.

That was easy. Too easy.

He pulled out onto a main road, and began speeding happily along the freeway.

"Mr Stark." Tony jumped as an unknown voice crackled from somewhere. He glanced madly around and spotted a radio, where the voice was coming from.

"Yello!" He replied, still disbelieving his luck. He past a sign for Kissimee, and realised that he was somewhere in Florida.

"You do realise that that truck you just stole has a tracking device?" The voice half sneered.

_Fuck_.

"Yep." He replied confidently, jamming the air conditioner button and letting the waft of cool air surround him. He breathed it in happily.

"You realise you have a chip in you, too?"

_Fuck_.

"Yep." Tony replied again, pretending to know something he'd only just found out about.

"Right." The voice sounded curt, and slightly annoyed. "Well then I'll presume you already know about the missile, aiming at your current location?"

_Fuck_.

He pulled over. Leaving the lorry on the side of the road and walking briskly down the road, passing several gift shops as he went. He chucked the radio into the road and watched gleefully as a car road over it, crushing the device.

Stopping outside a shop, he went inside. There were Mickey Mouse towels everywhere, along with baby sharks suspended in jars. He pretended not to feel sick as he approached the counter.

"Hey. Could I use your phone?" He'd made sure his face was hidden, while he hid his voice behind a British accent. _Great disguise Tony_, he cursed.

"Sure, it's in the back." The man said, gesturing behind him towards a door. Tony nodded his thanks and stalked towards the door. Where he proceeded to dial Pepper's mobile number. It rang for a bit, before it picked up.

"Miss Potts speaking." Her voice was clear and professional. Tony felt his heart skip a beat as he clutched the phone tighter to his ear. He remained silent.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" She questioned down the phone. Tony let a sigh escape his lips. Pepper deserved better than him.

"Urgh, hi." He said simply, he didn't sound like he'd just managed to escape from a kidnapping, but rather like he'd just walked out of the cinema after a sad film.

"Oh my God, Tony?!" Pepper breathed, he could hear the excitement escalated in her voice.

"Pepper- listen- I know about you and Steve- okay? I know- you deserve better-" it was killing him to say it. But Pepper did deserve better, and while hated Steve for it, he knew he wasn't a bad guy really.

"Tony I-"

"Pepper- listen- I got away- I need you to send some money-" He couldn't talk anymore- someone had grabbed him and had pushed a hand around his mouth. He wriggled as he dropped the phone and it hung in the air.

"_PEPPER_!" He yelled at the phone as more hands pulled him away from it. He could hear Pepper sobbing on the other end. "Pepper- I love-" he was cut off as a gag was pulled over his lips. He needed to speak to Pepper. Tell her he loved her. He knew she didn't love him back- knew she didn't care- wait.

His thoughts were rendered mute as he heard screams from the other end of the phone.

"Tony! I love you too! Tony! Oh my God! Tony, I love you _so_ much!" He wouldn't admit it, but a year crept from his eye.

A man walked round him, and he recognised it as Mr Greenwich. He picked up the phone carefully, and began cooing gently into it.

"Shh Pepper, shhh, it's okay, it's okay- Tony's _dead_." Mr Greenwich grinned as heard Pepper scream down the phone.

Tony wanted to kill this man, not just for taking him, but for doing this to Pepper. He could hear Peppers sobs echoing from the phone.

He stamped on the man holding hims foot, but it proved no use when he received a sufficient punch in the head. He could feel his brain rattle.

"Try not to grieve too much sweet-heart, he knows you were only in it for the money." Mr Greenwich grinned again as Pepper screamed some more. He hung up and turned towards Tony, who glared back unflinchingly.

"How cute." He said mockingly. "Dumbass." He raised his hand and smacked it across Tonys face, who could now taste the unmistakable taste of copper in his mouth.

"You really think you could get away so easily? Fucking idiot. We are a new generation of human. You will work for us. You will not complain. You will do as you're told. You will not try any funny business. Do you understand?" The man said, fly kicking Tony in the stomach. But Tony was too numb to care, despite the fact he was gasping for breaths.

Pepper did love him. Pepper did want him back.

"Take him away." Mr Greenwich snarled at the guards who then proceeded to carry him down out of the gift shop. He caught sight of the man behind the counter, who was gawping as the men lead Tony out.

* * *

Pepper threw everything and anything she could reach in her office. Tony was _dead_. No, Tony was _alive_. Tony's last words were 'I love you'. To _her_. No, he simply said he loved her. They weren't his last words. He was still alive.

As she calmed down, breathing heavily through her nose, she swore to her herself, for Tony, dead or alive. She would have her revenge.


	13. Dunking and Radio

**Hey, new chapter! So I watched The Green Mile last night, which was epic. Thought you should know.**

**Enjoy! **

* * *

"Can you play CCTV footage from Miss Beauxbatons Parlour please? Outside the shop?" Natasha asked, and as they watched the screen and saw a black car pull up, the door swung open, and out Bruce stepped, but it was obvious he had been half pushed.

He wobbled for a few seconds, before regaining his stance and shoved his hands in his pockets, started whistling, and walking down the streets towards the closest Starbucks. The team blinked at Bruce, giving him questioning stares.

"I don't remember that.." He said slowly. Natasha could tell he was kicking himself inside.

"It wasn't your fault." Steve reassured him, but Bruce let out a hollow laugh.

"It's my fault Tony's in this mess! How can it not be my fault?! If I hadn't been working on that wretched cure..." Natasha placed a hand on his shoulder as she spotted the tell-tale signs of green flash across his pupils.

"Bruce, calm down. You weren't to know." Natasha said soothingly, Bruce just bit his lip.

She jumped suddenly as she heard her phone ring, standing up again (she had been crouching to be level with Bruce who was sitting on a low chair), and sliding it open when she saw it was Pepper.

"Hello?" She said, an was met by a raucous of noise. "Pepper- Pepper! Calm down! What happened?" After five minutes of 'urms' and 'hmms' Natasha finally said. "Pepper, please! Pepper, we're on our way right now, don't go anywhere okay? I'm sure he's fine." She reassured the hysterical woman, but a small part of her had already died at the possibility of Tony actually being dead.

"What's going on?" Thor asked, not understanding.

"Pepper- Tony phoned her- said he'd managed to escape, but they caught him again while she was on the phone. The guy... Tony stopped talking... The guy said Tony was... That he'd just..." She trailed off, knowing they already knew what she going to say.

"I'm sure that's not true Nat. Tony would never go down without a fight, right? Right?" Clint said, shaking her. But even he couldn't wash off the hopelessness that was being poured over him like a mug of goo.

"Bruce, run scans for the Arc, and pin point his location." Steve said quickly, returning to full Captain America mode "Natasha and Clint, you prepare the Quinjet." Everyone nodded as they ran off. They weren't going to let Tony appear dead. He wouldn't be. He _couldn't_ be.

* * *

Tony had never condemned spitting. It was something his father had always said was disgusting, and that was one of the only things they ever actually agreed on. But now, he spat on Greenwich's face as the man took out the gag- only to have in thrust back again.

"I wouldn't do that." Greenwich warned slightly. Wiping away Tony's saliva from his cheek.

"Hm muh hum muuh" Tony tried to speak through the wad of cloth.

"What was that?" Greenwich asked, but not really caring as he pulled down a projector screen.

The screen turned white, and words unfolded, bold, black lettering saying 'Operation Eagle'. Tony didn't care for whatever the 'Operation' was, he just cared about getting home. Back to Pepper. But even he couldn't deny- the pixelation was killing him.

He knew Greenwich was talking, but he just sat there. Numb and oblivious to world. He saw the words form on the screen, saw the diagrams, the equations, but nothing else. It was like a fog had invaded his brain and was proceeding to fill the emptiness that had been all since his conversation with Pepper.

A slap across the face brought him back.

"Are you listening to me?" Tony just sat there, blinking every now and again but staring into some oblivion, Greenwich was talking... No... Greenwich was shouting... At him.

"- you stupid son of a bitch, look at me when I'm talking to you!" Greenwich snarled, Tony just gave him the dead eye. Greenwich turned, faced the guards again and said simply "you know what to do. I'll be back in an hour." Before stalking out and slamming the door behind him.

Tony didn't feel as rough hands grabbed him. Didn't feel as they twisted the arm with the stab wound. Didn't feel as they roughly wrenched open the wound on his hand, a poured some horrible, stinging liquid on it.

He did feel however, when they pulled up a bucket of water. He felt his head being pushed over it, to stare into its horrible, rippling from the journey, depths.

He watched as the gentle drip of blood off his head wound collided with the water. Sending more steady ripples. What he felt; was more emotional than physical, as his head was dunked beneath the water.

* * *

Pepper was at a loss. So far she had: phoned Natasha, went down to Tony's lab and began to try and find his location (that had been tough and she had since given up, she wasn't a computer expert), phoned a TV persecuting Tony, live on TV and yelled at them, she was now tired however.

Tired from the early six am start that morning, to the quick meeting, to lunch, to getting a call from her missing boyfriend, to hear him being carried away, to hear that he had just been killed.

That was too much. Even for her. She had to sleep. But she knew her dreams would be full of Tony. She wanted that. Wanted Tony back. But she wanted a peaceful sleep.

She ran over to the cupboards and pulled out a few tablets. She wasn't going to overdose. She took one, and felt her head begin to spin. She had hoped that that one would be enough to help her sleep, but it wasn't, so she took another one, and fell unconscious on the kitchen floor.

* * *

He watched as someone gave the signal, and they quickly, yet quietly, flushed into the building. A few men stood guard over the lift, but they were easy targets to take out. Slowly, they climbed into the lift and pressed the button. They didn't know which floor she'd been on, so they'd just have to try them all.

They decided to check bottom to top, so she couldn't escape downwards before they got her, with men manning the lift and the stairwell.

After searching on many floors, thousands of rooms, and millions of cupboards- they weren't taking any chances, they eventually reached the Pent-House. Where they were silent further as they crept around, searching.

Someone prodded him in the back of the neck.

"Boss." He spun around to see the younger operative pointing towards the floor, which was cascaded in darkness, but a figure could still be outlined.

He gave the kid a thumbs up as he silently signalled to the rest of the group to gather in the kitchen. Quietly stepping in, they registered Miss Potts, sleeping, and snoring while doing so, on the kitchen floor.

He grinned as he pulled her into a fireman's lift, and they marched from the room. Discarding any evidence that proved they'd been there, which of course was very minimal.

As they clambered into the truck, he felt a pang of guilt.

It wasn't this woman's fault she was being taken away like this. It was her boyfriend's. She believed him to be dead, how anymore messed up can her week get? Without getting kidnapped on top of that?

It was his job, after all, so he shouldn't be feeling this remorse. But never the less something inside him was kicking, and silently, he prayed that the two would make it out of this okay.

* * *

"We need to do this for us." Greenwich said, pulling out a laptop and showing him the screen. Tony hadn't a clue what was on it. So he told the guy that.

"I don't know what that is."

"Well then you'll work it out."

"What if I don't want to 'work it out'?"

"Well I'll persuade you." Mr Greenwich replied simply.

"No you won't, you'll get one of your cronies to do it." He reminded him, looking up and causing the eye-brow cut to throb painfully as the skin shifted.

"You're a funny man, Mr Stark." Greenwich nodded. Tony scowled.

"It is one of the nicer things I've been called." Tony shrugged, but then decided against it as his arm let out a squeal of protest. He flinched.

"I don't get it. Why _me_?" He said bitterly, eyeing up Greenwich.

"Because, you are the only one on this puny planet sufficient enough to work it out." Greenwich told him. "You, and I mean this, you, _will_ solve this problem for us. Hm?".

Tony didn't like the sound of that. He decided that whatever problem he wanted solving, he wasn't going to solve it. Even though he had said he would after the twelfth time his head had been dunked. But they weren't to know that. Not quite yet, anyway.

"So Mr Stark, are you going to fix it? There is a right answer to this question."

"Well technically I don't know. My brain is telling me to say yes, my conscious is telling me to say no, but I can't guarantee either." He knew he was pushing it, but before they had dunked him for lying, so, naturally, now he was telling the truth.

A loud echo sounded across the room, and a speakers sound erupted from somewhere.

"A delivery for Mr Greenwich. Could Mr Greenwich please pick up his delivery?" It crackled for a moment. Then went dead. Tony raised an eyebrow at Greenwich.

"Well Mr Stark. It would seem further persuasions have arrived." Greenwich said before stalking from the room, five armed men following him. The door clang shut and he heard bolts on the other side lock. He was alone.

* * *

She awoke with a start. _Damn those pills, no wonder Tony takes them to help him get to sleep_. Pepper was grinding her teeth as the man entered. He was wearing a dark suit, and black shiny shoes. His face was nothing special, easily forgettable.

"Where's Tony?" She spat, trying to hold her dignity as best she could.

"Well... He's not actually dead." Pepper let a sigh of relief out. But then thought.

"But?" She questioned, dread filling her again.

"But..." He stopped as something crackled through a walkie-talkie on his belt. He picked it off and flicked up the aerial. "Hello?" Pepper was shocked as a voice answered. A voice she hadn't expected. A voice she had longed to hear, but still... This was something different.

"Yo! Jeeves! Bring me up a latte when when you've finished with the bitch. Cheerio."

It was Tony. Tony Stark. Tony, Iron Man, Stark. Tony, Arc-Reactor-In-The-Chest Stark. What the fuck?

"Right-o boss."

It was his voice. It was all sarcastic without trying to be. It was him.

Pepper was numb.

Hadn't she spoken to him on the phone? He'd been so sincere. So truthful. Was this him? What was he playing at.

She blinked at Greenwich. Who smiled.

"Sorry sweetheart. I guess Tony never loved you after all."


	14. Pills and Pens

**New chapter! Hope you enjoy it... I don't really know what happened with the last two chapters, guess I was just feeling mean. Thank-you again to everyone whose reviewed and followed and favourited- you guys actually and officially rock!**

* * *

"Where's Tony?"

"Well... He's not actually dead."

"But?"

"But... Hello?"

"Yo! Jeeves! Bring me up a latte when you've finished dealing with the bitch. Cheerio."

"Right-O Boss. Sorry sweetheart, I guess Tony never loved you after all."

Tony swore. Loudly. He stood up and marched over the door where he began pummelling it, which was difficult given the state he was in.

"You fucking pieces of shit! Fucking! Urgh! Let Pepper go! Please? Let Pepper go! You fucking douches! Let her go!" He yelled until his throat was sore, then he yelled some more. He began furiously kicking the door. Trying to bring it down, but it was made of solid metal.

Greenwich was using Jarvis. He had stolen Jarvis. Or maybe bought him from Hammer, to manipulate his voice. He didn't even like lattes that much, unless they're from Starbucks.

"Fucking let her go! Oh my God! Let- her- go!" Tony screamed at the empty white tiled room. He knew that there were secret cameras, so it was only a matter of time before someone came in to shut him up.

He began pacing the room. Fury bubbling over him as he returned to the door and continued pounding on it, throwing more insults at Greenwich.

He stopped as the door swung open and Greenwich stood in the doorway, Tony just stood there, blinking rapidly.

"I see you heard mine and Miss Potts conversation?" Greenwich asked. Tony nodded, his throat was sore from all the shouting. Obviously he had, it had been played through those wretched speakers.

"Well then... Do you think we can come to an arrangement now?" Greenwich asked, looking at Tony. Tony then realised Greenwich was wearing slightly stacked shoes, and that made him smile. Tony had always been quite short, so he always loved to meet people shorter than him- especially when they were as ugly as Greenwich.

"What kind of arrangement?" Tony questioned the older man curiously.

"The one we discussed earlier, only this time it's not your own life you'll be bargaining for." Tony froze. Pepper.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Tony yelled, starting towards Greenwich- only then to have several hands to grab him and pull him back.

"Temper temper!" Greenwich cooed as Tony snarled, baring his teeth at the smug look on Greenwich's face.

"Don't touch her." Tony ordered sternly, trying to shake off the feeling of hopelessness growing in him like a weed.

"That's up to you Tony. Do you want her to live?" Tony nodded "Well then fix the bloody thing, and we'll let her go, unharmed."

Tony nodded again. He'd do anything to save Pepper. Anything.

* * *

The Quinjet swooped low over New York, until it managed to reach its destination- the top of Stark Tower. While the group inside were civilised and calm as the Quinjet touched down, the moment they were able to they sprinted from the plane and wrenched open the door, flooding into the stairwell and making their short descent into the Pent-House.

"Pepper?!" They yelled. They had expected her to be in either the kitchen, or the lounge. But she was in neither.

"Pepper!" Natasha yelled again, but she'd seen plenty of houses where no one was currently there, to realise this was one of them too.

"Guys..." Clint called as he beckoned the group over, pointing at the box of tablets on the side.

"These are registered for Tony." Bruce said quickly, holding up the box. "To help him sleep." He added, looking at the concerned faces of his team mates.

"You don't think- Pepper!" Steve yelled as he began sprinting around the apartment, searching everywhere. Soft hands pulled him back.

"Steve, I know Pepper too well to think she'd have taken an overdose." Natasha said sternly, but also calmly. The Super-Solider shrugged her off. "We need to look at the CCTV footage, guys."

_**15 Minutes later.**_

After watching much CCTV footage, they found one proving that Pepper had indeed not had an overdose, she had been seen to take two, which, as Bruce reminded them, it said on the packet was the amount to take for a good night sleep.

But then, a few minutes later, they saw something they didn't expect to see.

Men wearing black, their faces in shadow, breaking in to Stark Tower, into the Pent-House, picking up Pepper, and carrying her from the building.

"Well shit." Clint said, staring at the screen "that explains a lot." No one hesitated as they all ran from the building and back into the Quinjet.

"Bruce. Co-ordinates. Now." Natasha said sharply, and Bruce thrust the tablet in front of her. She typed them into the computer/sat-nav Tony had built for the Quinjet.

"We're coming Tony and Pep." Natasha promised to thin air, as the Quinjet took off and flew into the New York sky.

* * *

Tony was sitting at a desk, with a small light hanging from the ceiling, as he twiddled his thumbs madly, messing with his pen and twirling it his fingers. This wasn't his area of work, he was an engineer, a mechanic. Sure, what they were asking him to do required a certain extent of being able to create gadgets, but there was still an element of biology required, something he knew, but was not all that great at.

He had told them this, he had told them this wasn't his area of expertise. So as he sat scribbling down random notes and drawing crude diagrams, he couldn't help but feel the overall abundance of not being able to do anything.

The door creaked open again and Greenwich stood in the doorway.

"I can't do this." Tony said truthfully, looking at the man was was now striding over to him.

"What do you mean? You can't do this?" Greenwich asked, perplexed.

"I mean I'm not a fucking biology professor, thats what." Tony snapped, throwing his pen onto the desk with a loud thud.

"Ah, well, we did employ one of those, after he tried to find a cure himself, which of course we had to destroy, we couldn't have a cure going on before it's started properly can we? But needless to say they didn't have the sufficient brain set in engineering for the job." Tony was over curious now.

"What did you do to him?" Tony asked concerned.

"We let him go. Just in time for see his best friend being taken by the people who had taken him, because he had failed to deliver."

"Wait... Who was it?" Tony was worried now- Bruce had been working on a cure. It couldn't be for this virus Greenwich was asking Tony to assist in helping to improve? In this case build small nano-bots that would infect the mind and control the body? "... Bruce?"

"Dr Bruce Banner, or the Hulk as he's better known, yes." Greenwich nodded. Tony was in shock. He had no idea Bruce had gone missing. None at all.

"When did that..?"

"When you had a strop at Fury and stormed out. Dr Banner went to look for you. We only had him for a short time. By which stage, Hammer and Creaver were busy trying to get their hands on you. When we found out about their plan, we bargained with them, and let Dr Banner go, he of course has no recollection of any of this."

Tony just sat there. Dumb struck.

"I still can't build this." Tony said, collapsing back into the plastic chair. Then he thought for a moment. "I need a higher motivation. You obviously must know about Afghanistan, right?" It was killing him to speak of his time in the caves so casually, he often drowned himself in whiskey whenever it was brought up. Greenwich was raising his eyebrows.

"Please, please, just let me see Pepper." He begged "Please, and I promise you I will put in at the very minimum.. 112%" Greenwich thought for a few seconds, then turned on his heel and stalked from the room, slamming the door heavily behind him.

"Wierdo.." Tony muttered as he picked up the pen and started scratching into the desk. He didn't know how much time had passed before the door swung open again, with someone next to him.

Only, she wasn't standing up by herself, someone was supporting her.

Tony ran towards Pepper and grabbed her, pulling her in a tight embrace, taking in that apple scent of her hair, because she never used strawberry.

"Tony..?" Pepper said slowly, looking into his brown eyes, he looking into her blue ones.

"Pepper! Oh my God Pepper, I love you so much." Tony buried his face into her neck.

Pepper just stood there. Confused.


	15. Letters and Parachutes

**New chapter! Not sure whether or not I like it.. Anyway, enjoy!**

**I realise I haven't said this in a while, whoops, I don't own anything. Except from Greenwich, but I don't like him so you can have him :P**

* * *

After a tender 10 seconds of hugging, Tony pulled away from Pepper and stared into her blue eyes, which looked slightly dazed.

"Pep? Pepper.." Tony shook her slightly, worry filling him. What had they done to her?

"Tony..?" Her eyes focused on his, not straying from his penetrating, but fearful gaze. "Oh my God... Tony!" She cried as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, and he mimicked the act, smiling. They'd be okay.

"But... I thought you were dead... and then your voice... through the radio... you don't even _like_ lattes." She said, trying to piece it all together. Realisation spread over her blue gaze. "Holy shit..." She sighed, catching sight of Tony's bloodied up eyebrow, arm and hand- although they were nowhere near as bad as they had been. "Did they..?" Tony nodded slowly. He couldn't believe he was standing in the presence of Pepper, it was overwhelming, he had hated loved and loathed her all within the last few days; but now, he knew where his heart was.

"Shh, I'm okay, I'm okay." He assured her, patting her shoulder lightly.

"Tony- I- I don't-" Pepper's voice was panicky, Tony held her at arms length, grasping her shoulders. She'd gone a deathly white, colour still gripping her cheeks slightly, but it was receding rapidly.

"What did you do?" Tony snarled at Greenwich, who was grinning broadly. Tony pulled Pepper into his body again, as she muttered incoherent words. "Peps, c'mon, it's gonna be okay? Alright? Pepper...?" He said warningly, but his voice faltering as he felt her body go limp in his arms. He looked up at Greenwich and snarled. "What did you do to her?" He frantically began checking for a pulse, and let out a sigh of relief as he found it, beating steadily.

"Take her away." Greenwich ordered, as men began to pull Pepper from Tony's grasp, but he fought tightly not to let them take her away, still clinging on. As Pepper was eventually pulled from his grasp, he fell to the floor on his knees, and started shouting as they carried her unconscious body away. "You've seen her, you know we're not lying. Now get to work." Greenwich snapped, and he walked briskly from the room. Tony couldn't help but smile, because he'd managed to get the note safely in her pocket. _Mission __accomplished_.

* * *

Pepper awoke with a splitting headache. She'd had a few hangovers, but this was something new. Whatever they had given her before she saw Tony was obviously not agreeing with her 100%.

Tony.

She sat up straight. When she'd been taken, she'd been wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt, with a superman logo on it. She was still wearing it. She remembered suddenly Tony, placing his hand in her pocket from a brief moment, before sharply redrawing it, all in the short space between separating from hugging.

She turned over and crouched low, bending over herself as she put her hand in the pocket- letting out a sharp breath of relief as her small hands clasped over the small piece of paper.

Unfurling it smoothly, she began to read.

* * *

"Where are they?"

"Dunno, but they're certainly not in Disney World."

"Hawkeye, be serious, we don't know what state they could be in." Natasha told him sternly, while she appreciated Clint tying to lighten the mood, it wasn't exactly the right time.

"I'm going to drop us down half a mile away from the location. Hawkeye, I'm going to get you to drop out by parachute, and you can assess the area before we go in." Clint nodded as he began fumbled around the Quinjet for the small parachute.

"_Widow_." Bruce muttered, crouching down level with Natasha's ear. "Do you think he's alive?" She could tell by his low tone that what he thought wasn't what he wanted to believe.

"I don't know, what about you? What do you think?"

"I don't know." He said truthfully, voice still low, shaking his head.

"Hawkeye, time for you to drop." Natasha cut across him, nodding at Clint, who pulled open the door and signalled thumbs up, before jumping from the plane. They all watched tensely before they saw the parachute pop up.

"Hawkeye, tell us what you see." Steve said, getting his game face on.

"Two seconds, discarding the parachute." They heard Clint reply.

* * *

He touched down on the green grass, in between some trees. He loved parachuting. A voice popped into his ear.

"Hawkeye, tell us what you see." Steve said.

"Two seconds, discarding the parachute." He replied as he fumbled around with unfastening himself, when he was incompletely free of the parachute, he began to stuff it into the small back-pack, that was around the size of a fist. Another Stark Invention. Finding a tree with a hollowed log. He slipped it inside.

"Tell me where to go." He said, peering around but only seeing a thicket of trees.

"Walk 110 yards to your right, you'll find the driveway to the compound." Bruce's voice sounded.

"On my way there now." He promised, and began striding towards where the drive should be.

He heard the sound of tyres rolling along stones, and ducked as a lorry slowly drove past him. He watched as it drew to a halt in front of a large concrete building, and Hammer clambered out of the passengers side. It was all he could do to stop himself charging at him.

"Sir, Greenwich said Stark just tried to escape the compound. Got to as far as _Gifts Galore_ before they caught him." A gruff voice said, and Hammer pinched the bridge of his nose, before sighing heavily.

"Dumbasses. I told them not to underestimate him. Oh well, not our problem anymore." He shrugged and began striding towards the building. _Hammer didn't have him anymore? What? Was he actually dead?_ Clint thought, before kicking himself. _Of course Tony wasn't dead..._

"Hawkeye?" That was Steve's voice again.

"Urgh hi, Tony's not here." Clint sighed as he turned around, putting his head in his hand as he thought about what he'd just overheard.

"_What?!_" A number of voices chorused, wondering if they'd heard him right.

"I mean, Hammer said some other guy had him, named 'Greenwich' or something. That he tried to escape and got as far as a gift shop. Said what happened to Tony was no concern of his, and that it was this other guys problem now." Clint said, trying to sum it up.

"He's right." Bruce confirmed "No Arc Reactor signals coming from this particular base. But I'm guessing he's not far away." Clint nodded and turned around.

Despite the fact that it was a five minute long mission, and all he was doing was checking something out, he couldn't help but feel the overwhelming abundance that he'd failed.

* * *

_To Pepper,_

_Heyya. The guy is Greenwich. He wants a incurable virus to take over the world (I know, so cliché right?). Pepper, I need you to hold together with this, okay? Do what they say, when they tell you to do it. We'll get through this, then afterwards we'll go back to Malibu and I'll make you an omelet. _

_I'm rambling now, please Pepper? I can survive this, but now that they've got you.. Just please, please promise me you'll do whatever I tell you to do. Please. I need to make sure you get out of this okay? _

_Love you, like, a lot. _

_Tony._

Pepper sighed as she reread the letter, and rubbed her forehead. Tony always had to try and be so macho all the time, but she thought she'd pass him up on the omelet offer.

The guy's name was Greenwich, she wasn't sure whether she already knew that, but she decided to store it anyhow.

Scrunching it up, she shoved it back in her pocket and sat up, surveying her new surroundings. She knew they'd move her because she saw the way to where Tony was, far too much of an advantage on her part, and she wondered how many rooms this place had, surely they'd run out eventually?

The door clicked open and several men strode in, carrying cable-ties. She looked sternly at them, daring them to come any closer, before one of them spoke.

"We're moving." Before grabbing her and tying her securely with the ties. They placed a bag over her head and marched her from the room.

Pepper felt her feet stumble over themselves as she walked, hands grasping at her arms. She kept tripping and tumbling, before she felt herself been picked up and thrown roughly into something, picked up again, and plonked down next to somebody else.

"Hey, you coming on the trip too? I'm excited! Personally I hope we're going to McDonalds or someplace nice." The man said jokingly to Pepper. But Pepper had registered the voice at once.

"Tony?" She could tell he had frozen as he recognised Pepper's voice.

"Pepper?!" He said disbelievingly, but he was cut off as Pepper heard the sound of bone hitting skin and she winced as Tony let out a deep breath next to her. She winced again as she heard a crack as it smacked his jaw, and he groaned. She hoped he was okay.

* * *

"You're dumb fucks of a friend group were seen, not far from here." Greenwich snapped, and Tony felt a boot collide with his knee. He bit his lip to stop himself from making a sound, but the sound of the knee popping out was enough to send him into nausea, without the immense pain that had flooded him. He wanted to reply with a witty retort, but he couldn't move his jaw, and wondered sourly whether that was broken too.

"Don't think you can underestimate me Tony. Don't think I won't do whatever it takes to get what you need to give me. Even if it means killing your super-friends, or even your precious Pepper." Tony clenched his fists tightly as he felt the vehicle moving, trying to ignore the pain that was threatening to send him from consciousness. A broken jaw, winded gut, and now a dislocated knee? So maybe he'd underestimated this guys integrity, slightly.


	16. TV and Syringes

**Heyy, new chapter! I started school again on Tuesday, so it's gonna take me longer to write these, probably like once every two days or something like that? I'll try :) Promise!**

* * *

He stopped as he reached the clearing he'd fallen into previously, retrieving the parachute from the tree as he did so. He had told the others he was coming back, and they said they were on their way. Fair enough. He leant up against another tree and began picking the moss off the bark as he did so, twiddling it with his thumbs before attempting to header it, before it got stuck in his hair.

"Hawkeye? Do you read me?" Natasha's voice perked up in his ear, making him jump.

"Yep. Read you loud and clear. What seems to be the problem Officer?" He replied cheekily, he heard Natasha sigh a sigh of indignation on the other end.

"You have five men coming towards you. I suggest you hide or run, they look hostile." She told him, and his ears pricked. Hearing the faint sounds of machine guns being fired carelessly into trees.

"No shit." He agreed before clambering a tree, but he misjudged the strength of one of the smaller branches and it snapped, causing him to fall on the floor, with bits of leaves fluttering over his face, he grunted as he registered foot steps growing louder, and he pressed his body against the ground and began to crawl from the clearing, but not in time for a boot to land 2cm's away from his face.

"Nice boots, look expensive. Is that real leather?" Clint stalled as the man pointed the gun at his face. "Nope? Okay.."

Clint stood up suddenly and fly kicked the man, who stumbled backwards, but recomposed himself quickly as other men swamped around.

Looking around quickly, he spotted a low, over hanging branch and launched himself at it, but not quick enough for a hand to enclose around his boot and pull him back down.

He landed on the ground with a soft thud, and the men leant over him, apart from the one he'd kicked, who was now standing quite far back.

"Don't suppose you'd feel intimidated if I asked you where Tony and Pepper are?" Clint said hopefully, but a boot was placed on his stomach stopping him from moving. His bow and arrow were on his back, and digging into his shoulder, while the several guns that were scattered in various places across his body was impossible to reach quickly.

He lay there, the men looking around at each other.

"Now what?" He asked. This was already tedious. But that was before a bag was placed over his head and he felt himself being stripped of all weapons.

_Great assassin my left bum cheek. What the fuck just happened?_ He thought bitterly as he felt his hands being tied and being led from the clearing.

* * *

The journey was a long one. Or it seemed like that to Tony. He could feel his leg swelling where his knee cap had popped, and his stomach was slowly coming back to life, grumbling horrible as it did so. His jaw felt slightly numb and a bit bruised, but by the way he kept opening at closing it experimentally, he knew it wasn't actually broken. Always a bonus.

He could hear Pepper breathing next to him, he could feel her shoulder pressed against his, they were packed so closely together he could feel her steady heartbeat.

He jumped as he heard someone get up and start walking over towards them, the footsteps bouncing happily off the rubber/plastic floor, coupled with the sound of the engine.

"Guess what Tony?" Tony just sat there, thinking of something to say.

"Enlighten me." He said, with the air of one not actually giving a damn.

"We just caught Hawkeye." The man said gleefully through a sing song voice. Tony attempted to stand up, gritting his teeth together, but he forgot about his knee momentarily and flopped to the floor, feeling his face collided with the floor.

He heard Pepper gasp at the sound from next to him.

"What?" She asked "you have Hawkeye?"

"Yes we do little miss ginger nut." Tony would have loved to see the face Pepper had just given this man. But with a bag over her head too, it was unlikely this man had seen either.

"Leave her out of this." He spat at the man. "Why do you have Hawkeye? Let him go. You won't be doing yourself any favours." Tony was actually speaking the truth. He remembered one particular nasty fight where Clint had fought of around twenty men in one go, unarmed.

"Remember what Greenwich said to you?" Tony froze. Remembering suddenly how he'd threatened to kill the Avengers.

"Fuck." He sighed into the bag, as he heard the man chuckling to himself.

Tony spent the rest of the journey slumped on the floor, no one feeling the need to pick him up. He remembered the argument he'd had with everyone. He remembered drinking in that tree with Clint...

* * *

Tony and Pepper hugged each other tightly, as they got ready for what they were sure would be an interesting event.

Tony had begun work on the formula, which was surprisingly easier than he thought it would be now he put his mind to it, that was three hours ago. Now, him and Pepper were waiting the the speakers and TV to erupt to life, and they'd hear and see Clint. They had no idea what had happened to him. All they knew was that Greenwich had him, and that he'd just come round.

They were worried, very worried, about what was going to happen to him, and Tony couldn't help but feel that whatever was going to happen, was entirely his fault. They both jumped and clung to each other tighter as the speakers spoke. They felt like they were eves dropping. Clint had no idea they would be listening and watching.

_Fuck Greenwich and his sadistic games Tony thought bitterly._

"Hello Clint Barton!" They heard Greenwich say happily.

"How did they know his name?" Pepper asked, bewildered, staring at Tony, who shrugged.

"They've shocked me about a lot of stuff already. Not much could surprise me now." Tony replied coolly. "Like old Nigel and Geoff being Obadiah's nephews." Peppers eyes widened.

"What?!"

"I'll tell you another time. Just listen." And he gestured towards the screen.

"Ayup Chick." Clint replied at the man, grinning, although he was spooked that this man knew his name, he wasn't going to show it.

"Now, I wonder what you want to know?" Greenwich said, pretending to stroke an invisible goatee.

"Where are Tony and Pepper?" Clint said quickly, not beating about the bush.

"Well that I can answer for you." Greenwich replied, but before he could tell Clint whatever he was going to tell him, another voice came out of no where. It was a voice Clint knew and trusted, and his jaw couldn't help but drop when he heard it.

"Heyya Clinty, you having a nice time?" It was Tony- again.

"How many times are these people going to use my voice?" Tony exclaimed angrily as Pepper hugged him closer and patted him on the back. They looked up at the screen again to see Clint looking shocked, gawping, the recomposing himself, saying:

"Yeah I-" But he was cut off as half the room exploded, sending a wave of bellowing black smoke and bits of tile across the room. Pepper was screaming next to Tony as they watched the screen in horror, hearing muffled yells and curses, before the smoke mist that had blacked out the screen vanished, and a great hole stood in the wall. They could see Clint, on his chair which had tipped over sidewards, and he was grinning madly as a new voice spoke.

"Greenwich, come out of there with your hands up!" Steve. Tony couldn't help but grin as he and Pepper watched the fellow Avengers file into the room, guns, shields, giant green things posed and ready to strike. He and Pepper hugged eachother again, transfixed at the TV as they watched Natasha untie Hawkeye and they hugged eachother, whispering something in each others ears and smiling at one another, before cupping their hands together and storming across the room, everyone else in tow. It was like a romance film, but with more explosions. Tony quickly made a note he was going to make a new Tumblr account, and ship Clint and Natasha until the cows came home. He already had one where he shipped him and Steve, much to Steve's dismay.

During the time Tony's thoughts had escaped to the world of Tumblr however, neither of the pair noticed men barging into the room, until they had hoisted them up, Tony letting out a quick sharp gasp as weight was put on his knee, and he fell to the floor again. He watched on helplessly as more men advanced on Pepper, and cried out as he saw one of the men withdraw a long syringe, injecting it unkindly into Pepper's neck. A second later, her eyelids began to droop. Tony kicked out with his good leg.

Please get here in time. Please get here in time! He called out in his head to his fellow Avengers. They couldn't be far away now. He saw more men coming towards him now, another syringe ready to strike. He jerked himself out of the way but was seized around the middle as the syringe entered his neck.

Despite being drug addled, he stayed awake just in time to see the silhouettes of 4 muscly people, and one giant standing in the door when. Then he slipped from consciousness.


	17. Sponge Bob and Crutches

"It wasn't that great."

"It was, did you see all the explosions?"

"That's not something to be proud of."

"But it was still epic."

"I'm not going to sit here, talking to you about Star Wars, Clint."

Coffee. Tony could smell coffee. He wanted coffee. Damn Clint and Steve arguing this early in the morning.

Wait.

Clint and Steve. Steve and Clint. What the fuck happened?

He slowly opened his eyes, because he'd had too many experiences with opening eyes and being met by a full blast of light. But it was dark. The question in his head was answered.

"Why does it have to be so dark in here?"

"Pepper said he'd prefer to wake up in the dark, I don't know."

Oh okay. Wait. Pepper. He opened his eyes fully now and began quickly looking around the room.

"Wait. This doesn't smell of hospital." He said, it looked like a hospital, but it lacked the awful smell. Clint and Steve turned to him and grinned. He was surprised how well his voice was holding up, despite the fact he'd been asleep for however long.

"That's cus it's not a hospital mate, Pepper had one of the floors of the tower converted into a small hospital for when you woke up. She didn't think you'd like it on the Helicarrier much." Clint told him, before getting off his sofa (no plastic chairs in this mini-hospital) and striding over to Tony.

"Look, I'm so, so sorry about the party."

"Don't be."

"But I'm the one who got you drunk."

"But I'm the one whose on verge of being a full blown alcoholic." Clint looked grim as Tony scowled at him, though it was more of a 'I'm not going to win this fight so I'm just going to pull a face' kind of expression.

"How are you feeling?" Steve said, coming over at last.

"'M okay, yeah, I'm okay." Tony smiled at the two men, before saying "where's Pepper?" Hoping she would be somewhere close by.

"She had to go to a debriefing with Fury and Coulson. She'll be back soon." Steve told him, and Tony frowned. Thinking.

"What about Greenwich?" Clint and Steve exchanged hesitant glances before speaking, but that was only after a horribly long pause.

"He, urgh.. He..."

"Yes?" Tony snapped.

"He got away." Steve looked at the floor. Tony merely sighed, not exactly the reaction either of them were expecting.

"These things can't be helped. So, when can I go?"

* * *

After being given a long list of what he should and shouldn't do while he was still in cast, sling, and crutches, Tony was allowed to leave the infirmary, and proceeded towards the lift and into the pent house, where everyone were lying around on the sofa, apparently watching The Sponge Bob Movie, because they were all chuckling as a high pitched voice sounded.

"Tony!" Bruce yelled, standing up and rushing over to his beat up Science Bro.

"Hey, Bruce." Tony said, grinning and leaning on his crutch for support. No way was he going to have those for very long.

"I'm really sorry-" Bruce started, but Tony cut him off.

"I don't want to hear everyone's sob story. I just want a nice black coffee and to watch the rest of Sponge Bob." He said sternly before striding over to the kitchen (as best he could), and attempted to make himself a coffee. With the help of Bruce of course.

When he rejoined the group, Steve was talking.

"What's Sponge Bob?" He asked innocently. Tony nearly dropped his mug.

"What's Sponge Bob? What's Sponge Bob?! You uncultured swine!"

* * *

He was fuming. He was gone. But he had the formula. But it wasn't 100% complete. He needed the rest of the equation. He needed the cure that was going to make him rich. But he lacked the right skill set.

Hammer was gone. Interrogation with Shield. He wouldn't be let out any time soon. That was obvious. He couldn't rely on Creaver either. After the man heard that Hammer had been found he went on the run.

Half of his facility was destroyed. He prepared a bitter angst against the Avengers, and Tony Stark.

Because whether or not the genius realised it, he had just given himself a world of new pain, the likes of which weren't going to go away soon.

It was then that the whole operation became a vendetta. Because he had killed his dream, and gotten possibly his only friend behind bars in the process.

So, he began to plot his revenge. Swiftly and silently. Like a cheetah about to pounce on his prey.

* * *

He didn't show it, but he was really, really pissed off that Greenwich had gotten away. That man had kidnapped him after all.

Tony scowled as he attempted to clamber into bed, feeling the softness of the sheets and allowing them to fall over his body.

He jumped as the door clicked open, and his favourite red head stepped inside, smiling slightly.

"Hey." She whispered as she threw off her shoes, not taking her eyes off Tony. She then slipped into some pyjama's and crawled in next to Tony.

"I would put my arm around you, but it's a bit worse for wear." He told her, as Peppers head rested on the pillow.

"It's okay. I'll just look at your face instead." She grinned at him, and he returned the smile.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?

"Love you."

"Love you too Pep."

They both drifted off to sleep, but Tony was still thanking his lucky stars.

Pepper really was a God send.

**Not sure whether I liked this chapter or not. Whatever. Hope you enjoyed it! **


	18. Pasta and Tomato

**Last chapter! It's been an honour to write this and I hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you to everyone who has favourited, reviewed, followed, it's amazing! Thanks! **

* * *

The next few weeks were tough. His stitches had healed, and his leg was on the mend. He'd already snapped his crutches, insisting he didn't need them, and instead built an Iron Man armour that could support a dislocated knee comfortably- much to the exasperation of others. But, despite all that, and being kidnapped, thinking his girlfriend hated him, then was dead, and all of that, he was learning to enjoy himself again.

Many people would come away scarred from that kind of thing, swear never to drink alcohol after the incident at that party. Tony disagreed however. Flying over to Ireland with Clint and Bruce and relinquishing in the glory of fine ale. Steve had told Tony not to even leave the tower, but naturally, who wants to follow orders? Especially from Steve Rogers?

He and Pepper began drawing blue prints for a second Stark Tower, only this time somewhere more secluded. They chose Alaska. Kept low on the publicity, and it was on the fast track to a 5 star tower for Stark employees to go on holiday with their family.

Because that was something Tony had learnt, nothing was more important than friends and family, and it just so happened he'd learn the importance of family even more within the next few months.

* * *

They were all sitting around the table, Steve having cooked pasta, Pepper had tried to help but Steve insisted help was not needed after Peppers last episode. Although that might have been because Tony was also trying to make the pancakes with her.

They were all talking happily, all full on the pasta and tomato sauce, when Clint yelled for everyone to be quiet, glancing at Natasha, who was smiling.

"Me and Nat, we have an announcement." Clint said, looking down the table. Tony and Pepper exchanged glances, smiling slightly to each other as they held each others hands under the table.

"We're going to have to scrounge another room off you Tony!" Clint grinned and Natasha beamed. "Because we're going to have a baby!"

Everyone was ecstatic. All offering their congratulations, asking how far along Natasha was, offering their help should they need it.

Tony and Pepper stayed back however, still clutching each others hands.

"You know what Pepper?" Tony said quietly into Peppers ear.

"What?" She asked, smiling at the happy couple in front of them.

"I think life's just about perfect now." He said, kissing her head as they walked forward towards the couple.

"Yeah? Well watch this." Pepper said cheekily, and Tony stood back as Pepper whispered something into Natasha's ear who looked like she was about to squeal. She nodded and whispered something back, and Pepper walked back over to Tony and winked at him.

Tony stood there, not knowing what to expect, as Pepper cleared her throat.

"Me and Tony also have some news." She said happily. Tony blinked, raising an eyebrow at Pepper who continued smiling.

"Me and Tony.. We're also expecting!"

It was then, that moment, right there, in front of everyone, all his friends, his family, did he appreciate what he had, and next time anyone, Greenwich, Hammer, threaten to take that away from him, there would be hell to pay.

**Nice ending? Rubbish ending? Whatever. Hope you enjoyed it! **


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